Opinion

The administration of the 2020 election wasn’t the calamity some had feared. Warnings of armed violence and voter intimidation came to nothing. Polling sites were sufficiently staffed, the system coped with the Covid-related surge in mail-in ballots, and Election Day lines remained manageable even in historically underserved areas. With few exceptions, voting equipment functioned properly. In the most encouraging sign ...

The election of Joe Biden as US president has prompted sighs of relief across the world — not least because his White House is expected to be a boon for the international economy. Donald Trump’s erratic behaviour on trade and currencies has weighed on foreign companies and governments while doing little to fulfill his domestic objectives. Even though it’s hard ...

With hopes that their season in hell could be approaching an end, airline stocks are on a tear. Shares in Singapore Airlines Ltd jumped the most in 21 years while those in Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd were up the most since 2008 after Singapore and Hong Kong announced the opening of a travel bubble starting from November 22. News of ...

“So when our Sickness, and our Poverty Had greater wants than we could well supply; Strict Orders did but more enrage our grief, And hinder in accomplishing relief.” That’s how the British poet George Wither explained a spreading rebellion against social-distancing rules. Seeing quarantines and lockdowns as unfair and tyrannical punishments, people were taking to the streets. The year was ...

Governments around the world put out consultation papers all the time. But only in China can one vaguely worded, 22-page document on antitrust regulations ignite a $290 billion equity selloff. As investors nurse their wounds, they want to know, why is China regulating Big Tech now? And what exactly does Beijing want? Emerging out of the Covid-19 recession, China got ...

We know that US President Donald Trump loves strongmen. He was famously soft on Vladimir Putin’s Russia; he welcomed Hungary’s xenophobic Viktor Orban to Washington by saying he had done “the right thing” by restricting immigration; and he said he got along better with world leaders “the tougher and meaner they are”. And the strongmen loved him back. Orban wrote ...

Will Dad sneakers be enough to save Reebok? Bloomberg News has reported that Germany’s Adidas AG is exploring a sale of the shoe brand, which could be worth between about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) and 2.5 billion euros. Private equity groups Permira and Triton are circling the division, the Financial Times reported. There was no word from Adidas on ...

All the things that allowed China’s internet innovators to become big, powerful and hugely profitable are under threat. The implications are chilling for established players. Draft rules detailed by China’s antitrust watchdog are aimed at rooting out monopolistic practices among internet companies, Bloomberg News reported. That could be invigorating for potential challengers to industry leaders such as Alibaba Group Holding ...

If the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine gains regulatory approval by Christmas, we can cheer the scientists for heroic work. But it will be the distribution decisions made by governments that will determine how quickly we can all exit Covid confinement. The UK has put itself in a strong position to access early vaccines, but its approach to prioritisation and distribution needs careful ...

President Donald Trump’s petulant decision to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper, via Twitter of course, was both shocking and predictable. It’s shocking that a president who just lost an election would fire a member of his cabinet at the start of what is supposed to be a peaceful transfer of power. Then again, that president is Trump and that defense ...