Opinion

It’s State of the Union time, and one of the few bright spots — so it seems — is the US economy. We are at loggerheads with our traditional allies. The spreading coronavirus casts a cloud of dread. Meanwhile, the economy plods along at about a 2% annual growth rate. Though unspectacular, this has been steady enough to reduce the ...

Ryanair Holdings Plc has been given a telling off by the UK’s advertising watchdog for making “misleading” claims about its carbon emissions. Ads claiming Ryanair is “Europe’s… lowest emissions airline” must be withdrawn because the Irish carrier did not fully substantiate this and other environmental boasts, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found. As the climate crisis intensifies, Ryanair probably won’t ...

One big argument against Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to re-nationalise large chunks of the British economy was that it would prove eye-wateringly expensive. Yet one of the companies in the sights of the opposition Labour Party’s leader, Royal Mail Plc, is turning out to be anything but. The postal operator’s heavily shorted shares plunged 9% on February 6 to a fresh ...

Crude oil has had a grim start to the year, with prices hovering around $50 per barrel as China’s coronavirus epidemic shuts down swathes of the world’s second-largest economy. A rebound akin to the one that followed the end of the Sars outbreak is unlikely this time. Back in 2003, China was on a growth trajectory. The economy was also ...

Large infrastructure projects are almost always delivered late and massively over-budget. Then everyone forgets about the fuss and marvels at the achievement. Few people regret today that Britain and France built a rail tunnel under the English Channel, yet it cost a fortune and nearly caused the owner to collapse. One must be wary, then, of the often nimbyish opposition ...

The coronavirus outbreak in China is already threatening to undermine the global economy. It may soon create a similar shake-up in the drug industry. I’m not talking about pharmaceutical companies’ attempts to develop a vaccine, but about intellectual property. Chinese researchers have applied for a patent on an antiviral drug candidate called remdesevir owned by Gilead Sciences Inc. The drug ...

Modern living standards — indoor lighting, affordable food, heat in the winter, an internet connection — require energy. And every energy source has its drawbacks. It’s easy to point out the downsides of a given energy source and call for it to be banned. But if we’re not careful about weighing costs against benefits, we’re liable to end up with ...

The “Chinese model,” as enthusiasts sometimes describe Beijing’s autocratic system for dictating policy, can look eerily successful — until you consider catastrophic events such as the recent coronavirus outbreak. China’s response to the epidemic that began in Wuhan over a month ago shows some advantages of its police-state approach, and some severe disadvantages: Chinese authorities can commandeer resources to build ...

With the traditional department store in its death throes, Macy’s Inc. is doing its best to keep the concept alive. The struggling retailer last week unveiled a strategic blueprint to defend its business against the twin threats of online and discount competitors. The centerpiece is closing 125 of its department stores over the next three years, including some 30 locations ...

It’s easy to announce an initial public offering in Europe, but far harder to complete it. Don’t be distracted by the handful of decent-sized share issues launched in January. The recent evidence suggests that the target audience for European IPOs is smaller, fussier and harder to reach than it used to be. Some 17 offerings totaling 1.4 billion euros were ...