Opinion

As energy prices surge, UK politicians seem to be relying on Latin American literature for guidance. Like a novel by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, officials have lost the ability to differentiate between substance and magical realism. But companies can’t afford to live in a fantasy land. Departing Prime Minister Boris Johnson is clearly a fan of the literary ...

The longer the people of Northern Ireland live with the Brexit arrangement known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, the more they seem to like it. A majority (55%) see the Protocol as appropriate for managing the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland and 53% see a benefit to their economy. That’s not to say it doesn’t have flaws, which many ...

The purpose of any policy is not only to effect change but also to educate the public. This educational function is important yet rarely discussed explicitly, perhaps for fear of looking like a propagandist. So be it: I wholeheartedly embrace the notion of policy as a way of educating voters. How does this work? Consider the moon landing of 1969. ...

  The Federal Reserve’s quantitative tightening program will ramp up to its full potential in September, increasing from $47.5 billion to $95 billion per month. Some market participants are concerned this additional monetary tightening will have negative consequences on risk assets and the economy. Given that quantitative easing — buying US Treasuries and mortgage-related securities — helped firm the economic ...

  Manufacturers of fighter jets, battleships and missiles are usually one of investors’ best defensive havens when economies get shaky. This time around, geopolitical conflict and tension are making them key components in the offensive arsenal as well. Normally, when a downturn erodes demand or some exogenous shock rocks the market, the US government budget, and particularly spending on the ...

  It’s no surprise that for US allies in Asia, “Top Gun: Maverick” is the year’s most-watched American movie, topping the box office in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The simple tale of US might and gumption against an evil faceless opponent certainly resonates in a region that’s facing intensifying threats. But no one is placing bets that Tom Cruise ...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at last week’s central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was brief — but financial markets took notice. The S&P 500 fell sharply as investors adjusted their thinking on how tough the Fed was willing to be to get inflation back under control. Powell underlined that restoring price stability is the Fed’s “overarching focus” ...

  Corporate junk bonds in the US are paying investors a paltry premium for the risk of holding them into a looming recession. Either spreads need to widen or the recession clouds need to vanish, but something’s got to give. Consider the first possibility, the base case. Junk spreads typically track recession risk closely, and the economic gloom has been ...

  Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at 91, defied convention in ways small and large throughout some of the most tumultuous years of the Cold War. He failed in his most basic ambitions. But the world was better for them all the same. Born to peasants in a rural village that had been ravaged by collectivization, Gorbachev grasped the ...

We’re more than a year-and-a-half into Joe Biden’s presidency, with full second-quarter economic growth numbers from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis now in hand. Which seems like as good a time as any for another installment in my occasional series comparing growth rates under US presidents — which somewhat to my surprise shows Biden on pace to compile by ...