Opinion

WASHINGTON China suffered a significant setback this month in its bid for dominance in the South China Sea, and its leaders are following a familiar script after such reversals: They’re making angry statements but taking little action while they assess the situation. The U.S. is playing a characteristic role in such a flare-up, too. Rather than crowing about victory, it’s …

  Japan has taken a bold step and Abenomics is once again at play. But will it yield the desired results? This is a pertinent question which has no easy answer. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a 28-trillion yen ($266 billion) economic stimulus package ahead of the crucial Bank of Japan (BoJ) meeting. BoJ is also expected to …

  Ramesh Ponnuru Bill Clinton took on a daunting task on the Democratic convention’s second night: convincing Americans who have been watching his wife for a quarter-century that their picture of her is mistaken, that she is not the candidate of the status quo but “the best darn change-maker” he has ever known. He told us about Hillary Clinton’s parents …

  The news in late June that Russia and Turkey were making noticeable moves toward repairing relations damaged last year when a Russian jet was shot down by Turks along the border with Syria was overshadowed by a terrorist attack at the Istanbul airport on June 28. Unrelated as the two events were, the news cycle quickly spun away from …

  The willingness of Hillary Clinton campaign’s to suggest that Russia has interfered in the U.S. presidential election — in the form of President Vladimir Putin’s supposed help for Donald Trump — exposes the weakness of the Democratic candidate’s presidential bid. The campaign is wasting ammunition on loud but inefficient accusations, instead of looking for avenues of attack that would …

  Verizon’s purchase of Yahoo! for $4.83 billion, while an interesting exercise in combining content, networks and mobile services, highlights the broken norms for paying executives of U.S. corporations. The short version is that issuing and repricing of stock options compensates executives for bull markets rather than their own performance is absurd. When the deal is complete, Yahoo Chief Executive …

  Noah Smith One of the core pieces of modern macroeconomic theory, handed down to us by the great Milton Friedman, probably missed the mark. And now it might be on the way out. And this shift has big implications for how we think about economic policy and finance. The idea is called the permanent income hypothesis (PIH). Friedman first …

  PHILADELPHIA En route to fight one of his many duels, French politician Georges Clemenceau bought a one-way train ticket. Was he pessimistic? “Not at all. I always use my opponent’s return ticket for the trip back.” Some Hillary Clinton advisers, although not that serene, think her victory is probable and can be assured. Her challenge is analogous to Ronald …

  History was made early Tuesday when Solar Impulse 2 completed its historic round-the-world journey, becoming the first solar-powered airplane to circle the globe, with the aim to promote renewable energy. The selection of Abu Dhabi to be the launch-pad and the final leg of the epic odyssey wasn’t coincidental as the capital has been the centrestage of clean energy. …

  Catherine Putz SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Days after two suicide bombers killed more than 80 people amid a peaceful demonstration in Kabul, the country’s president said the Af-Pak relationship is Afghanistan’s biggest problem. In an interview with Pakistani media, President Ashraf Ghani agreed that terrorist groups, like the Taliban and al-Qaeda, are threats to the country but noted that …