Opinion

  Helicopter money is back in the headlines amid speculation that Japan may turn in desperation to the final chapter of the handbook of unconventional monetary policy. But there’s an alternative to handing consumers a one-time payment in the hopes they’ll spend it: Give them a permanent wage hike instead. Milton Friedman’s thought experiment about whirlybirds dropping cash from the …

  A U.S. federal judge has given a preliminary green light to Volkswagen’s $14.7 billion settlement for cheating on emission tests. This means U.S. owners of VWs fitted with “defeat devices” will get about twice the market value of their cars in a buyback, and the 482,000 vehicles themselves will probably be scrapped. Meanwhile, in Europe, the owners of 8.4 …

  Stephen L. Carter If you’re looking for a diversion after two weeks of heavy convention viewing, I’d recommend a trip to the multiplex to see “Star Trek Beyond.” The reason isn’t just that the movie is by far the most fun of this summer’s tentpole offerings. The film is a paean to the value of diversity, and perhaps heralds …

  For many decades, Russian intelligence agencies have used what they call “active measures” to destabilize their rivals. Now they seem to be turning those tools on the U.S. political system, though in the process they appear to have violated Rule No. 1 of the spy business: Don’t get caught. U.S. officials say they have strong evidence that Russian intelligence …

  The recent move to exempt small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from bank guarantees has been taken to facilitate smooth functioning of this sector. It will help SMEs to do their business without any uncertainty and apprehension. The UAE’s growing SME sector has been playing a vital role in shaping its economy. Today, there are over 3,50,000 SMEs in the …

  Justin Fox With each monthly data release from the Energy Information Administration (there was one last Tuesday) it gets a little clearer. Natural gas has overtaken coal as the main source of electrical power in the U.S.: Gas’s lead over coal will keep growing. Coal-fired generating capacity has fallen 15 percent in the past six years, according to the …

  After years of explosive growth that killed many a print publication, the online advertising market may be reaching maturity. To keep growing, the biggest ad sellers — such as Facebook and Twitter — will need to find ways to get more money out of existing advertisers, and that means it’s television’s turn to feel the squeeze, because the social …

  Any day now, India’s government is set to announce an official inflation target for the first time — a major step in the modernization of its economic institutions, particularly the central bank. The idea has been proposed and debated for years, including in a much-discussed 2008 report written for a previous Indian administration by Raghuram Rajan, now governor of …

  The U.S. general election officially begins on Labor Day, but the dynamics for this volatile race will be established in August. Or: With a polarized electorate, many of the parameters of the contest are already baked into the cake, so little will change over the next five weeks. Both predictions can’t be true, yet political operatives in both parties …

  Noah Smith Xavier Gabaix, a New York University economist who gets far less attention than he should, has written what might prove to be the most interesting macroeconomic theory paper in years. The title, “A Behavioral New Keynesian Model,” isn’t exactly exciting and the paper is still incomplete, but it might help resolve the most important and difficult macroeconomic …