Opinion

  While everyone fixates on the U.S. election, developments in the world economy threaten to create problems for the next president and, possibly, trigger a major financial crisis. A little-noticed study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delivers the bad news. It finds that global debt — including the debts of governments, households and non-financial businesses — reached a record …

The past few weeks of revelations about Donald Trump should convince you of the utility of Twitter’s platform. It is the new news ticker, the way information gets spread at the speed of light by the fastest typists. But that’s merely the networked and mobile technology. If you want to know how valuable the company is, you must ignore the …

  Cheers rose from prominent voices around the world this month when almost all countries agreed to reduce the climate costs of international air travel. The United Nations and the White House applauded the deal, as did the airline industry and even some environmentalists. Yet the agreement hardly qualifies for the praise. It stands to do little to reduce carbon …

  There were demonstrations and rallies on Sunday in France, Spain and Poland against the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). While TTIP is in limbo, CETA is to be signed on October 27. But it can only be struck when all 28 EU member states back it. Tuesday (October 18) …

  When South Korean officials talk about the growing nuclear challenge from the North, they use red-alert phrases like “existential threat,” “imminent danger” and “dagger at the throat.” They want Americans to understand that this long-running story of brinksmanship has entered a new phase. One senior South Korean official told me starkly: “A nuclear missile from the North can land …

  You have to hand it to economists — they say the darndest things. In a Wall Street Journal survey, a group of economists “put the odds of the next downturn happening within the next four years at nearly 60 percent.” Oh no. Today, we will make another entry in the catalog of how worthless predictions tend to be, and …

  With the passing of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the naming of his son to the throne, the question of when and to whom power would be transferred in Thailand has finally been answered. The real question, however, remains: how to empower the Thai people. While little can be said about how Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn might rule — …

  The world’s envoys just pledged to make the planet safer by reaching a pact to curtail hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). HFCs are the fastest growing greenhouse gases. They are used in air conditioners, fridges and aerosols. Cutting HFCs will reduce global warming by 0.5 degrees by 2100. However, the transition from HFC to substitutes like ammonia, water or gasses called hydrofluoroolefins, …

  When President Mauricio Macri took office in Argentina last December, he faced two monsters that his 44 million compatriots know only too well. The first was an economy ravaged by spendthrifts, who’d driven public finances into disarray and then papered over the mess with magical statistics. The second was the quandary of how to restore sensible government without inflicting …

  Stanford historian Ian Morris is fond of saying that “each age gets the thought it needs.” According to this maxim, ideas like the Enlightenment, communism or even Christianity are a product of the economic and political circumstances of their times. It’s easy to believe that libertarianism might have been a good fit for the late 20th century. Coming out …