Opinion

Since Watergate, presidents and their aides have warned that impeachment is destabilising to foreign policy. But history suggests otherwise. Presidential scandals create uncertainty abroad, but the impeachment process itself seems to bring clarity and resolution. Keep this lesson in mind as the Senate begins its trial of Donald Trump. The president’s advocates will argue (as he himself has already) that ...

Sergio Ermotti is facing a painful reality. For the third time in three years, UBS Group AG’s chief executive officer is resetting his ambitions for the world’s biggest wealth manager. A big fine in France is clouding the outlook for investor returns because it will make payouts uncertain. The pressure on profit margins is forcing the $2.6 trillion manager to ...

Investors aren’t waiting for a definitive deal to end the mass of lawsuits against Bayer AG before snapping up the shares. The German life sciences group’s 75 billion euro ($83 billion) market value is up some 26 billion euros in seven months on hopes that thousands of claims related to its glyphosate-based Roundup weedkiller, accused of causing cancer, might be ...

Since the 19th century, temperatures have been falling. I was as surprised as you. As it turns out, this isn’t about the climate for once, but about human body temperatures. On average, millennials in the US today run 1.06 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than Americans did in the 1800s, if they’re male, and 0.58 F cooler if they’re female. The reason ...

In most places, government ministers would be happy to hear that someone intends to invest a billion dollars in their country. Not in today’s India. Late last week, Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos announced that he would be pumping another billion into the online retailer’s India arm; in response, India’s commerce minister, Piyush Goyal, said that “it is not as if ...

This time, it might just work. Telenor ASA and Kuala Lumpur-based Axiata Group Bhd. are back at the negotiating table. Joining forces in South and Southeast Asia still makes sense for both carriers. Options including a mooted minority investment from Norway’s $27 billion telecoms heavyweight could be enough to get them started, with sales and spinoffs to follow. Talks for ...

The world’s largest car market is cratering and there are few signs of a recovery. It was never supposed to get this bad — and even if it got close, a helping hand from Beijing would steer things out of any prolonged trouble. Or so people thought… Instead, passenger car sales in China fell 9.5% last year, more steeply than ...

Climate change has come to Wall Street in the guise of Larry Fink. For those who don’t know, Fink runs BlackRock, a $7 trillion collection of investment funds consisting of stocks, bonds and other securities. Fink is a global opinion-maker, and he believes that worldwide climate change is driving “a fundamental reshaping of finance.” This is, or could be, a ...

Iron ore had a carousing 2019 — for all the wrong reasons. A fatal dam collapse in Brazil, followed by a tropical cyclone in Australia, battered production and sent prices to their highest level in five years. Early figures from BHP Group and Rio Tinto Group show just how much benefit both have reaped. With supply coming back, Chinese mills ...

Hong Kong is missing an opportunity to displace the US as an offshore listing venue for Chinese companies by keeping trading fees too high. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s $11 billion offering in November showed the potential for the city’s stock exchange to attract US-listed mainland enterprises amid an unsettled trade relationship between the two largest economies. Relatively expensive costs threaten ...