Opinion

  Any conversation with a European bank executive these days quickly turns to talk of how their US rivals are in better shape. American banks were much quicker in bolstering their capital bases after the financial crisis; they also have more regulatory certainty (in part because they didn’t challenge every proposed rule change). And in at least one corner of …

  The board of the International Monetary Fund was right to reaffirm its full confidence in Christine Lagarde as the institution’s managing director despite her conviction for negligence on Monday by a Paris court. She has done a good job as the head of one of the world’s most important multilateral institutions. But there’s more to be done by the …

  Less than a decade ago, the International Monetary Fund used to talk about Asian countries piling up too much in their currency- reserve stockpiles. The global financial crisis turned that conclusion on its head, and now that US interest rates are poised to keep climbing, the race is on to identify which countries have the strongest buffers against capital …

  President-elect Donald Trump has made a point of shaking things up. In domestic policy, this taste for disorder is risky. In foreign policy, it could be calamitous. Trump isn’t yet president, so it’s early to be drawing conclusions. But concern is warranted. Trump rejects the status quo in America’s relations with the rest of the world, and seems to …

  Thousands of dejected and distressed Syrians left the rebel enclave of Aleppo on Monday as the UN Security Council unanimously voted to deploy observers there. The council also announced the plan for a new peace talks in Geneva in February. Families in Aleppo had spent hours waiting in below-freezing temperatures, sheltering from the rain in bombed-out apartment blocks and …

  Investors have been anxious for some time about what rising interest rates will mean for US stocks and bonds. The Federal Reserve kicked that anxiety into a higher gear recently. It wasn’t that the Fed raised the fed funds rate a quarter point — everyone knew that was coming. The real news, as my Gadfly colleague Lisa Abramowicz pointed …

  In times of trouble for gold — and the yellow metal has slid 11 percent over the past six weeks — India has traditionally provided a safety net. The country’s consumers typically account for between a fifth and a quarter of total global gold demand in the second half of the year, with bargain-hunting buyers putting a floor under …

  The European Central Bank reckons that financial market uncertainty, as measured by how far stocks, bonds and the euro are from historical norms, is currently close to zero, in contrast with elevated uncertainty during the recessions of 2009 and 2013. The sheer range of known unknowns for 2017 — the outlook for China’s economy, the effect of populism on …

  When big Midwestern states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio voted for Donald Trump, they chose to roll the economic dice. It’s not clear yet whether President-elect Trump will or can follow through on his promises to revamp US trade policy. It’s even more dubious whether that will have any kind of positive effect on the Midwest. But it’s …

  Beyond cars, Japanese companies haven’t made much headway in China. The nation’s top fast-food chain is KFC, most consumer goodsare from Procter & Gamble Co., and even though cars made by Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. sell well when political frictions thaw, mainlanders’ vehicle of choice is generally a Volkswagen. But there is one exception: convenience stores. …