Opinion

President Donald Trump is about to select a new Federal Reserve chair. Whether it’s Jerome Powell, Kevin Warsh, or even current head Janet Yellen, the choice will mark a shift in Trump’s tenure leading the world’s biggest economy. That’s because the president, who railed against Yellen during his 2016 campaign, will now be assuming ownership of this credit cycle and …

Since talks on the UK’s exit from the European Union kicked off in June, there have been five negotiating rounds backed by speeches, press conferences and shuttle diplomacy. And yet the UK and Europe are no closer to agreeing about what their future relationship should be, or even settling the divorce bill. Now the question is whether there will be …

Looking at photographs of the ruined, desolate streets of what was once the IS’s capital of Raqqa is a reminder of the overwhelming, pitilessly effective military power of the United States. Perhaps it’s a tribute to the inevitable nature of American force, once it’s engaged, that the fall of Raqqa this week provoked so little public discussion. Commentators focused on …

Remember this when you see your Netflix bill rising: It has to be this way. The company has recently warned price increases are coming for many subscribers in the US and other countries. It’s happening because Netflix Inc. has been spending a small fortune to supply homes with entertainment —such as ‘Narcos’ and ‘Stranger Things’—that it creates itself, owns and …

UK supermarket giant Tesco Plc announced this week it will buy back up to 700 million pounds ($921.6 million) of its outstanding debt across a series of its bonds — and then cancel it. Yields fell sharply on the news. This should surely send a clear signal to rating companies that it is on the path back to an investment …

“A triumph of peace and democracy.” That’s how Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro described his government’s implausible victory in last weekend’s gubernatorial elections. In fact, it is a further hardening of the soft autocracy that used to be South America’s richest democracy. Maduro’s government entered the polls with an approval rate of about 24 percent in a collapsed economy with inflation …

What would America’s abortion policy be if the number of months in the gestation of a human infant were a prime number — say, seven or eleven? This thought experiment is germane to why the abortion issue has been politically toxic, and points to a path toward a less bitter debate. The House of Representatives has for a third time …

Axis Bank Ltd. has been caught lying again. On October 17, the Indian lender reported that the central bank wasn’t happy with its classification of nine large corporate accounts as standard assets. As a result, the non-state-owned bank, the country’s sixth-largest by market value, has decided to rebrand the entire $750 million as nonperforming (NPAs). It’s the second time this …

Australia’s record of 26 years without a recession flatters to deceive. The gaudy numbers mask serious flaws in the country’s economic model. First and most obviously, the Australian economy is still far too dependent on “houses and holes.” During part of the typical business cycle, national income and prosperity are driven by exports of commodities — primarily iron ore, liquefied …

It turns out that North Korea isn’t just a nuclear threat. It’s also a cyberthreat, and in some ways, this may be more frightening. Launched largely anonymously, cyberattacks can cripple essential infrastructure — power grids, financial networks, transportation systems — and inflict social disorder and political anarchy. Immediate retaliation is difficult. All this now seems plausible. Until recently, cybersecurity experts …