Opinion

The pandemic has prompted governments to take a more active role in managing their economies. Politicians are giving out generous loan guarantees and subsidising wages to reduce the risk of a wave of bankruptcies and mass unemployment. The next step is taking over companies directly. After a spree of recent acquisitions — from payment systems to airlines — Italy appears ...

China’s leaders recognise the importance of symbolism. Decisions such as the positioning of officials at public events, even the order in which names are read out on news bulletins, delineate relative power relationships. Those who can interpret the arcane signals of communist protocol have built careers out of it. The discipline even has a name: tea-leaf reading. In this light, ...

With pollsters predicting that Donald Trump will soon be out of the picture, global investors can finally breathe a big sigh of relief. Foreign policy could become more predictable, so they can start buying Chinese government bonds, which actually pay interest. They can also invest in the mainland, where a successful Covid-19 containment strategy has allowed businesses to resume. Money ...

European diplomats are awkwardly shuffling their feet in anticipation of a headstrong, unpopular leader crashing Brexit trade talks just as a tentative deal looks in sight. No, not UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson — France’s Emmanuel Macron. The 42-year-old president is sticking to his guns on the contentious issue of post-Brexit fishing rights, much to the distress of European Union ...

Oscar de la Renta, a brand that is a regular on red carpets and a mainstay of posh department stores, has just turned up somewhere decidedly less opulent: Amazon. Amazon.com Inc recently launched Luxury Stores, its latest effort to become a go-to destination for designer goods. Select Prime members can access a new section of Amazon’s app that showcases $2,790 ...

White House officials have been likening their workplace to a “ghost town” since President Donald Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19. East Wing staffers are under orders to work from home, while many in the West Wing — if they aren’t isolating with their own cases — are also staying away. It’s a smart choice, but not one that’s available to ...

Europe desperately needs its banks to function better. Low profitability, decrepit technology and a new wave of loan losses threaten to hobble even the continent’s strongest lenders. Share prices are close to historic lows. In this environment, it’s tempting for those in better shape to snap up their cheaper rivals. But banking bosses should think carefully before empire building. Europe’s ...

The power of 27 countries against one is often cited as the reason why the European Union will prevail in Brexit negotiations with the UK. But the logic reverses when you think about what might happen to the City of London after Britain’s departure, and whether Europe’s other cities can challenge its primacy in finance. For financial services, having a ...

If you think your summer holidays were lackluster in an era of pandemic-induced staycations, spare a thought for the world’s airlines. The industry typically earns some 40% of its profits in the third calendar quarter alone, as the surge in travel gives carriers the chance to finally fill up planes at prices that can pay off their wage, fuel and ...

Covid-19 may do for Big Oil what the Chicxulub asteroid did for the dinosaurs when it struck Earth 66 million years ago. Much like the “terrible lizards,” Big Oil was already in decline before the novel coronavirus hit. The world in which they thrived is changing around them and they face multiple threats to their future health. But the outbreak’s ...