Opinion

Shortly after the US Capitol was stormed, an American Airlines Group Inc flight from Washington to Phoenix faced its own insurrection. Despite entreaties from flight attendants, some passengers belligerently refused to wear masks and chanted “fight for Trump” and “USA!” The situation became so tense that the pilot took to the intercom and threatened to “put this plane down in ...

French President Emmanuel Macron’s knack for top-down statist dirigisme hasn’t been very visible when it comes to rolling out Covid-19 vaccines, with the country’s immunisation campaign among the slowest in the world. But it’s now on full display in the supermarket sector. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire took to the airwaves to pour scorn on a potential $20 billion bid ...

Agflation is back, and so are unhelpful fixes. Under pressure from falling incomes and higher inflation, Moscow has rushed to cap the cost of basic foods and introduced measures to curb wheat and other exports. President Vladimir Putin’s televised displeasure was a symptom of the strain governments are feeling everywhere. Fortunately, the problem is not yet at levels seen just ...

This wasn’t the start to the New Year Boris Johnson envisaged. Just weeks after beating the western world to approving the first vaccine against Sars-Cov-2 and launching a massive inoculation campaign, the Prime Minister was left to solemnly declare that the UK is facing a “perilous” moment. His warnings are reminiscent of the first lockdown when Britons were told they ...

Just because something is unlikely doesn’t mean it’s not worth worrying about it. A sudden return of inflation after years of weak price pressures fits right into this category. The euro zone is particularly exposed to a sudden return of inflation. The European Central Bank’s (ECB) loose monetary policy has played an essential role in preserving financial stability in the ...

Facebook Inc has long defended its lackadaisical approach to misinformation by saying that if it imposed stricter conditions, such content would proliferate elsewhere anyway. Far better to monitor conversation itself … or something. But pushing false information and incitement to violence to the darker recesses of the web would be better. Facebook’s line of reasoning has long seemed disingenuous, not ...

Big Oil faces that old political dilemma. You know the one. On the one hand, the industry’s chosen party has its back on regulation and climate policy. On the other, the same party also tried to overturn the result of a democratic election in favour of a president who encouraged a mob to attack the Capitol, thereby endangering our whole ...

If one country approves a coronavirus vaccine, should another just trust it and follow suit? Covid-19’s rapid global spread pushed labs and manufacturers to develop vaccines quickly. Several are now in use and more are in various stages of development. Early predictions that a vaccine would take 12 to 18 months to arrive seemed optimistic. Hand it to the pharmaceutical ...

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin finally got the state of emergency he first sought months ago. The sweeping powers ostensibly give him a shot at quashing a surge in coronavirus infections while, critically for the future of his leadership, putting the lid on a political rebellion that threatened his precarious 10-month tenure. The emergency decree was declared by the king ...

The UK is looking for ways to set itself apart from its European neighbours after Brexit. On monetary policy, however, Britain could soon become more European. The Bank of England is studying the possibility of cutting interest rates below zero, as central banks in Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and the euro zone have all done in the recent past. Policy makers ...