Opinion

  At the heart of banking regulation sits a tradeoff between competition and financial stability. Competition allows consumers access to better prices and better products. But it can also encourage banks to do wayward things, often at the expense of soundness. Faced with the choice, regulators typically come down on the side of safety. Regulators in Ireland have adopted this ...

  Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX was a magnet for the so-called smart money. Backers included the biggest names in finance and venture capital, from BlackRock Inc. to SoftBank Group Corp. to pension funds. Even after this summer’s crypto crash, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan described its investment in the firm as “lowest-risk” — because it was the venue where “everybody else” ...

  Twitter Inc. — now under new management, if that’s the right word — fired about half its workers over the weekend, a big story by anyone’s standards. Yet some teams and countries suffered worse — and that is a story with global political implications. In India, for example, Twitter seems to have laid off 90% of its employees. In ...

  Cryptocurrencies were supposed to usher in a new and better era of finance. Instead of relying on fragile, stodgy and often discriminatory banks for deposits, loans and the like, people could transact directly through platforms brilliantly designed to obviate the need for trust. If further evidence was required, the travails of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.com this week have demonstrated just ...

  It’s no surprise that Elon Musk is ordering Twitter Inc. staff back to the office within a month of taking the keys to the social media company. Workers at Tesla Inc. are fully familiar with their billionaire boss’s strict preference for being present. But combine this with a weakening economy and pressure from Wall Street leaders for office working, ...

  After searching for a new chief executive officer since May, Biogen Inc. has selected industry veteran Christopher Viehbacher, who previously led Sanofi and later worked in venture capital. It’s a solid choice. Viehbacher helped steer Sanofi through turbulent times and has the experience to do the same for Biogen. Viehbacher will succeed Michel Vounatsos, who has led the company ...

If China were to attack Taiwan, it wouldn’t just have to face a hostile superpower. It would also likely have to confront its longstanding regional rival, Japan. For centuries, Japan and China have vied for hegemony in East Asia; at times, they have threatened each other’s survival. Today, as I found from three days of meetings with Japanese officials and ...

Winston Churchill’s words at the turning point of World War II in 1942 are an apt summary of where the Bank of England currently finds itself: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” And while the Federal Reserve remains committed to pushing borrowing ...

  The mooted sale of Liverpool Football Club confirms an uncomfortable truth: No-one really makes any money owning a soccer club, they only profit from selling it. Fenway Sports Group Holdings LLC, which also owns Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox and the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins, is exploring a sale of the English team. Liverpool could fetch more ...

  China’s tech moguls have been walking on eggshells. Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and the nation’s most prominent entrepreneur, disappeared from public view after delivering a speech on China’s state-dominated banking sector just over two years ago. His blunt criticism infuriated President Xi Jinping. The fallout has been severe. Beijing abruptly pulled the $35 billion IPO ...