Opinion

Inequality in the US has risen a lot during the past few decades. This has sparked outrage among segments of the public, raised concern among economists and other social scientists, and revitalised America’s socialist movement. Much of the debate has been driven by the work of three French economists — Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. The trio has ...

The next big thing for big tobacco has turned into a bit of a nightmare. Vaping took off as a potentially healthier alternative to smoking for adults looking to kick the habit. But then it caught on with a whole new generation, sparking a teen epidemic in the US and fears that they could graduate to smoking traditional cigarettes. Matters ...

A young labour force, a real estate boom, a politically stable Communist-led country that can reap riches through exports and a friendly relationship with the US — many have compared Vietnam to what China was more than two decades ago. Add one more trait to this mix as we enter the 2020s: profitless prosperity. With Vietnam quickly moving up the ...

It was the year of inequality. The economic debate took a dramatic turn in 2019. To be sure, much attention was paid to the familiar standbys: jobs, interest rates, inflation and trade. But superseding these well-worn subjects was a growing fixation on the lopsided nature of American prosperity. It’s become fashionable to denounce billionaires. Bernie Sanders thinks they should be ...

It’s showtime for Keith Skeoch. Almost three years since he and Martin Gilbert agreed to create Standard Life Aberdeen Plc, he’s now flying solo as chief executive officer of the UK’s biggest standalone asset manager. For the fund behemoth to be valued by investors and analysts at more than the sum of its parts, it needs to either consistently outperform ...

In between dealing with margin calls, Aubrey McClendon spent some of 2009 liquidating his famously well-stocked cellar in the non-fun way. In vino veritas, as it turns out: McClendon’s vintage version of the financial crisis, after his meteoric rise at the helm of fracking pioneer Chesapeake Energy Corp., embodied the wild successes, excesses and lasting hangover of the shale boom. ...

It was a cheering Christmas week to repeat the bromide, “love thy neighbour.” But the unfortunate truth about America these days is that many of us seem to hate our neighbours. We don’t understand how other people can oppose the values we cherish most. Their behaviour is infuriating and, it often seems, unforgivable. How do we escape this bitter impasse? ...

Until the financial crisis of 2008, government bonds were the traditional haven for investors. More than a decade on, their nature has fundamentally changed. In any future crisis, sovereign debt will be a propagator of risk rather than a refuge. Government debt has reached levels not seen outside of major wars. In advanced economies, it has risen to more than ...

It was the decade that altered the very definition of “TV” — Noun: Netflix. Verb: to stream. The industry’s struggle to adapt to the new terminology sparked a merger mania that has rapidly condensed the market for entertainment content and pay-TV services into the hands of a powerful few. Here’s a look at what the rise of Netflix Inc., the ...

India’s economy lost its sheen this year. As it stumbles through a deep slowdown and a credit crisis, the country has gone from being hailed as a colossus-in-waiting to placing among the also-rans. Rarely has a major economy had such a humbling turn in fortunes. In the third quarter, gross domestic product rose 4.5% from a year earlier, about half ...