Opinion

Who said Davos doesn’t make a difference? As world leaders, business executives and cheerleaders for the planet descended on the Swiss resort for the annual World Economic Forum, one diplomatic victory was being chalked up on the sidelines: A presidential truce between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron over France’s plan to tax tech companies, which the US says discriminates against ...

The UK-European Union trade talks haven’t started officially, but both sides are testing out negotiating lines. Britain is already colouring some of them red, setting up a fight later this year that will encompass the three Fs: fish, financial services and the freedom to diverge from EU rules. To use another f-word, all three issues are fraught. But it’s the ...

Disney+ and other new streaming-TV apps are starting to nip at Netflix Inc.’s heels. While that means Netflix will have an even tougher time enticing new users, its streaming imitators aren’t giving subscribers reason enough to cancel the tried-and-true service. For the first time ever, Netflix has serious competition, and fourth-quarter results offered a first glimpse at what that might ...

Which would you prefer: cheaper rent or a cheaper holiday rental? I’d wager heavily that most people would answer “rent.” It’s a bigger slice of personal spending. Short-term accommodation accounted for just 1% of US household budgets in 2016, compared to the 16% spent on housing, according to analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, ...

On the face of it, the Phase One trade deal signed between the US and China last week looks set to provide a big boost to American oil and gas producers who need to develop new export markets. Just how well they fare against exporters who are much closer to the world’s biggest energy importer may depend as much on ...

After three years of will-he-or-won’t-he, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin officially decided that it’s not worth rocking the boat when it comes to financing the federal government. The Treasury announced that it would start issuing 20-year bonds in the first half of this year, bringing back the maturity for the first time since 1986. While it sounds like a big ...

The first annual results season is underway since the Business Roundtable, a US group of top bosses chaired by JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive officer, Jamie Dimon, clarified the “purpose of a corporation” back in August. It should be a moment for CEOs, including Dimon, to show they’re serious about the commitments they made, and for investors to hold ...

The reputation of Masayoshi Son, the world’s most prolific unicorn breeder, came crashing down last year with the collapse of WeWork. An 80% writedown on The We Co., and a 970 billion yen ($8.8 billion) loss at the SoftBank Vision Fund delivered some cold hard truths about his vulnerability. You might think that Son would have learned his lesson. Instead, ...

BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink published two letters — one to CEOs, one to BlackRock clients — outlining the asset manager’s environmental, social and governance priorities for 2020 and beyond. To say the letters’ import is significant doesn’t nearly do it justice. Last week, I attended a conference of energy CEOs, executive board members, institutional investors and proxy ...

For much of Donald Trump’s presidency, the economy’s historically low unemployment rate has coexisted with the president’s historically low approval rating. “The fact that we have the strongest economy in 50 years and he’s stuck at 43% approval ought to scream volumes for his language and his overreach,” one Republican pollster said. That’s one explanation. There is another: The US ...