Opinion

  Back in 2014, Narendra Modi’s landslide victory was hailed by columnists in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, who predicted that he would prove to be India’s Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher, modernizing India’s economy with a revolutionary program of deregulation and privatization. Abruptly withdrawing more than 80 percent of the cash in circulation in India, Modi …

  Oil forecasters no longer project a Hollywood ending for crude. These days, it’s more of a Bollywood ending. We wrote here about the torch of oil demand being passed from the industrialized world to emerging markets, especially China, in the past decade or so. Equally as important: The same trend can be seen in forecasts for future oil demand. …

  Paul Kazarian says he’s spent “tens of millions of dollars” mobilizing a team of a hundred analysts to scrutinize Greece’s assets and liabilities. According to him, everyone else — including the International Monetary Fund, the credit-rating agencies, the European Union and the Greek government itself — is massively overstating the problem of the nation’s debt burden relative to economic …

  Peak demand for oil is the big new thing. True, the International Energy Agency, in the annual World Energy Outlook it released earlier this month, didn’t envision a peak coming before 2040 barring a big acceleration in anti-climate-change efforts. But at least it’s talking about the possibility, and forecasting a slowdown in demand growth in the meantime. Others think …

  With Trump’s election, there is suddenly a lot of question about the fate of Obamacare. Will it be repealed, in part or in whole? And if so, replaced with what? One place to look for answers is in a new article about Obamacare’s coverage expansion. Learning more about what has already happened with Obamacare turns out to provide some …

  Republican and Democratic leaders in the U.S. Congress seem willing to let the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal languish, and if anything’s certain about President-elect Donald Trump, he won’t push for it once in office. But even if the U.S. isn’t smart enough to share in the benefits, the pact is worth saving. The 11 other signatories should implement it …

  More than a fortnight ago Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that country’s 500- and 1000-rupee notes were no longer legal tender. The decision was taken purportedly to curb black money menace. Initially, this was hailed by some as a masterstroke against endemic corruption. But, signs are emerging that it may hit the economy hard. Also, there are murmurs …

  The European Union is going through painful contortions to put off keeping its promises of visa-free travel to neighboring countries. The promises were made in rosier, pre-Brexit, pre-Trump times. Now they’re a liability. One of the main reasons poorer countries in Europe want a closer relationship with the EU is for the opportunity of borderless travel. It’s a coveted …

  Nov. 25 marked Black Friday, which once was considered the beginning of the holiday shopping season, though the start these days is even earlier thanks to endless hype by the retailing industry. News reports today are filled with tales of increased traffic, decreased spending, tremendous discounting. As was widely reported, sales fell because of deep price cuts, even as …

  When my colleague Lawrence Lessig argued at Medium that members of the Electoral College should break faith and vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump, I chalked it up to the brilliantly contrarian Larry being brilliant and contrarian—even if wrong. But when, over the holiday weekend, the Washington Post published his op-ed making the same argument, it made …