Opinion

The breakfasters at Bob and Edith’s Diner are too preoccupied with their tasty bacon and eggs to notice the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Or perhaps, like all Americans who are more sensitive than oysters, they are in the throes of political exhaustion and are trying to ignore this year’s only competitive gubernatorial race. In any case, they seem unaware that the …

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s solid election win green lights a continuation of the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) massive economic stimulus, entrenching a divide with global peers who are either heading in the opposite direction or mulling moves to do so. While growth in the world’s third largest economy has picked up, inflation remains nowhere close to the BOJ’s 2% …

Congratulations! There is a very good chance your city is one of 237 runners-up in Amazon.com Inc.’s competition for a second North American headquarters. True, your town, city or region won’t be getting 50,000 new jobs, an estimated infusion of $38 billion to its economy or a skyline dotted with crystal biospheres. But don’t despair: This bidding process for Amazon’s …

The Trump administration is taking aim at the Volcker Rule, one of the core elements of the Dodd-Frank financial reform, saying it’s too complex and burdensome. That’s true, but improving the rule shouldn’t mean weakening it. The rule has a vital purpose: denying taxpayer subsidy to speculation. It therefore bans speculative trading at financial institutions with access to federal deposit …

It’s going to be Janet Yellen’s Federal Reserve no matter who is the next chair. With every headline, financial markets get jolted as investors guess whether US President Donald Trump will re-nominate Yellen to the helm of the US central bank or opt for a more hawkish successor such as Stanford University economist John Taylor. Fed chairs matter. If credible, …

The morning after is always when reality hits. Reading the news headlines about China’s recently minted sovereign bond, one could be forgiven for thinking President Xi Jinping’s moment in the capital markets has arrived. The government’s $1 billion of 10-year notes were priced just 25 basis points over Treasuries, with the spread narrowing to less than 10 basis points Friday …

Catalonia’s declaration of independence from Spain, passed by the Catalan parliament on Friday, is a largely symbolic gesture as far as true independence goes. It will, however, require all of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s experience and skill to defuse this situation. These last couple of days, I’ve been in Barcelona trying to make sense of the complex game that’s …

Russia’s cybermeddling in the 2016 US presidential election has been accompanied by what US and European experts describe as a worrisome Kremlin campaign to rewrite the rules for global cyberspace. A draft of a Russian proposal for a new ‘United Nations Convention on Cooperation in Combating Information Crimes’ was recently shown to me by a security expert who obtained a …

In view of the deepening Brexit gloom ahead of the meeting, last week’s amicable European Union summit was moderately encouraging: At least the talks didn’t break down. Both sides ought to understand, however, that when they meet next time, moving to actual trade negotiations is essential. Instead of negotiating the shape of their future trade arrangements, Britain and the EU …

Along with its Silicon Valley brethren, Facebook is scrambling to respond to pressure from Congress about the flood of fake news and bogus political ads on its site. The deluge is also doing great damage, it’s worth pointing out, far from Washington. Facebook’s fastest-growing markets are in the developing world, where the problem of fake news is even more devilishly …