Opinion

Standard economic theory says that taxation reduces productivity. If you tax income, you reduce the incentive to work. If you tax capital gains, you reduce the incentive to invest, and so on. When you discourage useful economic activity, the economy becomes less efficient. But what if it were possible to impose taxes in a way that also increased productivity? That’s …

  A month has passed since the U.K. voted to leave the European Union. While that’s nowhere near long enough for all of the economic aftershocks of Brexit to fully manifest, the evidence thus far suggests grounds for optimism. The FTSE 100 Index of the biggest U.K. companies, which dropped 3.15 percent on the day after the referendum, is now …

  Undoubtedly, Bangalore is still the number one IT/ITeS outsourcing location in the world, as noted by an Economic Times article quoting a 2014 survey of the top 100 IT locations. It’s not difficult to see why — the city not only boasts the highest number of startups, but also has an ecosystem that supports the startup culture. It has …

  Anthony Fensom The Bank of Japan is determined to cheapen the currency of the world’s third-biggest economy. Who might be the winners and losers, both at home and abroad? On Friday, the yen ended trading with its first two-week decline since May on speculation of further monetary stimulus at the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) July 29 policy meeting. Despite …

WASHINGTON If economic commentators (including me) seem to agree on one thing, it is this: Jobs in America have become less secure. If you’ve got an OK job, don’t let go, because you may not be able to find another. The conventional wisdom is widely shared — but it may be wrong. We now have an intriguing report from a …

  The upcoming Federal Reserve meeting will be the first since last month’s shock vote in Britain to leave the European Union. It is expected to hold rates even as traders hope for guidance on policy plans. The uncertainty is a blessing in disguise as pledges are being made around the world to provide support to financial markets. The impact …

  Mark Whitehouse Later this week, European regulators will report on stress tests designed to determine whether the region’s banking system could withstand a crisis. Judging from a separate indicator of financial strength, the truth is probably more than they can handle. The tests will focus on 51 banks in the European Union and Norway, subjecting them to an adverse …

  A worrying trend is developing in the corporate bond market: Even with borrowing costs at or near their lowest ever, companies are increasingly unable to pay their debts. There have already been enough defaults around the world this year to suggest that the record set in 2009 might be beaten. And that should ring alarm bells for traders and …

  On July 26, 1991, Manmohan Singh — then Finance Minister, and later Prime Minister for 10 years — rose in Parliament to deliver an address that would transform India. That speech, outlining the first budget of a just-elected government under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, launched India’s journey of economic reform, dismantling many decades-old socialist-style controls on the private …

  Albert R. Hunt Hillary Clinton has been a national political figure for a quarter-century, longer than any presidential candidate. Yet contradictions and conflicting portraits of her persist. She is smart, well-versed in domestic and foreign-policy issues, revels in working things out and commands strong loyalty. She also is overly suspicious, insular, often nontransparent and disposed to cutting corners. She …