Opinion

There are many unanswered questions about the man who shot and killed at least 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday. In the days ahead, more facts will emerge. But the most common question — could anything have been done to stop him? — will also be the most difficult to answer, the most hotly debated, …

Donald Trump’s grand tour of Asia will attract a lot of attention this week, but in one respect the fuss will be misleading. The president will be no more than a bystander when the region’s leaders make a very big decision — whether to go ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal that the US designed and subsequently abandoned. …

Corruption, black money, terrorism, fake currency — Prime Minister Narendra Modi resolved to eliminate all in one stroke when he announced India’s biggest-ever cash ban on November 8 last year. However, the short term costs of his move are outweighing the benefits. He invalidated 86 percent of currency in circulation, saying the move was essential to combat graft and terrorism, …

Instead of bringing clarity, an impressive price surge last week accentuated the differences within the financial industry about the future of the bitcoins. Opinions range from those asserting that we are witnessing the birth and maturation of a new global currency to those who argue that the phenomenon is a ‘fraud,’ with a large middle either reserving judgment or arguing …

Investors have heard repeatedly in recent weeks that the period of easing by the world’s major central banks is about over. According to this view, interest-rate hikes that the Federal Reserve has already implemented will be followed by the end of bond purchases by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan, and by multiple rate increases by the …

Has there ever been a covert action that backfired as disastrously as Russia’s attempt to meddle in the 2016 US presidential campaign? Granted, we know all the reasons Moscow is gloating: Donald Trump is president; America is divided and confused; Russia’s propagandization of ‘fake news’ is now repeated by people around the world as evidence that nothing is believable and …

For more than a year now, a sort of phony war has been going on in the financial-services industry. Respected seers such as Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer John Cryan and Citigroup Inc.’s former chief Vikram Pandit have been prophesying a digital revolution that will see routine banking jobs replaced by automation, algorithms and artificial intelligence. To date, as …

Well, that didn’t take long. Broadcom Ltd. is exploring a $100 billion-plus takeover of chipmaker Qualcomm Inc., Bloomberg News reported. This is the same Broadcom that announced its decision to move its legal headquarters to the US in an Oval Office presentation that carried the usual bravado of President Donald Trump’s administration. We wondered then if this sudden bout of …

Donald Trump has a cautious side after all. In naming Jerome Powell as next chairman of the Federal Reserve, the president has chosen a loyal ally of the outgoing chair, Janet Yellen. At first sight, the appointment signals business as usual in monetary policy, rather than the unconventionality that some of the other candidates stood for. On the whole, this …

A ‘New Era’ in President Xi Jinping’s China risks setting off alarm bells in the US and Europe. The ruling Communist Party committed to the more assertive policy during a twice-a-decade reshuffle that ended last week, contrasting with a relatively restrained approach over the past three decades. Xi said that China was ‘approaching the center of the world stage’ as …