Opinion

  Howard Marks, co-founder of Oaktree Capital Group, is one of the smartest guys I know. Each quarter, he sends out a letter to investors filled with sharp insights and observations. I find all of his letters to be worthwhile, but this quarter he played right to my confirmation bias in his discussion about experts. Here are the key concepts: …

  It is far too early to render final judgment on the Obama presidency. All the chatter about his ‘legacy’ overlooks two obvious realities. The significance of Obama will depend heavily on events that have not yet happened (for starters, the fate of the Iranian nuclear deal) and comparisons, for better or worse, with his successor. Still, it’s possible to …

  For the UK economy, the good news is that following the Brexit vote, the sky hasn’t fallen as many predicted; on the contrary, it’s been a period of unexpected fair weather. The bad news is that the benign outlook is encouraging a surge in borrowing, leaving households vulnerable if the Bank of England decides to tighten monetary policy. Andy …

  India’s controversial decision to ban 500- and 1,000-rupee notes has backfired. The idea was to root out “black money” — the profits of political corruption, tax evasion and ordinary crime. But efforts to get around the ban have been so effective that those problems may now be harder to solve than before. Prime Minister Narendra Modi deserves credit for …

  Once again Cyprus reunification talks failed to reach any conclusion. The diplomats from Turkey, Greece and Britain suspended the talks after failing to iron out differences on security guarantee for its ethnic Greek and Turkish communities. The reunifications talks have failed multiple times in the past also. This gives rise to skepticism. Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when …

  The news this week that Yahoo! Inc. will be rechristened ‘Altaba Inc.’ elicited a lot of groans. “Apparently Yahoo renamed itself after an antihistamine,” tweeted New York Times tech reporter Mike Isaac. The name “sounded more like infantile babble than the remnants of a once-promising internet giant,” wrote Fortune’s Lucinda Shen. The reason for the renaming is that Yahoo’s …

  China followers know that stability is highly rated. Hostile takeovers, like divorces, are never smooth and the few that have made headlines recently sent shock waves through markets in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai. Beijing sent a shush message last month regarding Baoneng Group’s attempt to take control of China Vanke Co., a developer that was until last year …

  Compared with the alleged Russian hacks of the Democratic National Committee and other US targets, another important cybertheft that has also been tentatively attributed to Russia is getting far less attention. The revelations are much less titillating than those that have made headlines recently — they aren’t even understandable to most people — but they may be part of …

  We are in the throes of another round of what the economist Joseph Schumpeter memorably called “creative destruction.” Two icons of American business – Macy’s and Sears — are struggling. Macy’s plans to close 100 stores to improve profitability, and Sears has sold its Craftsman tools line for roughly $900 million to raise cash. Conceivably, one or both of …

  Investment bankers in Asia are usually happy to see a spike in Treasury yields. It gives them the perfect excuse to tell clients that if they don’t issue dollar bonds now, the costs will be much higher later. That may help explain why debt sales in the US have uncannily accelerated, even as Bill Gross and Jeffrey Gundlach warn …