Opinion

For 70 years, India has struggled to remain a secular state. In spite of its people being overwhelmingly Hindu, it chose not to distinguish between its citizens — or putative citizens — on the basis of their religion. That principle was what its founding fathers fought for, and what for decades led it to proudly distinguish itself from Pakistan, born ...

The big news of United Airlines was that the company’s longtime chief executive officer, Oscar Munoz, will step down in May. But many of the company’s most loyal customers were focused on a different transition: On December 4, United made the most substantial changes to its frequent-flier upgrade program in years. Flight upgrades are mostly a problem of the 1% ...

After a year of gridlock in Westminster that has frustrated the UK’s attempts to leave the European Union (EU) on amicable terms, British voters have handed Boris Johnson a thumping majority to do just that. They might also be handing Brussels a tough new competitor on Europe’s doorstep. This is sobering for the EU, which is on course to lose ...

When even Indonesia starts talking about relaxing deficit rules, you know government spending is back in vogue as a remedy for faltering economic growth. The country has more reason than most to be wary of backsliding on its commitment to budget discipline. Its deficit ceiling is an important piece of the economic and political architecture that emerged from the Asian ...

Is China about to embark on a fresh bout of stimulus? Some people in the metals market seem to think so. Prices of benchmark 62% iron ore in Singapore have been booming, jumping 5.3% on December 9 and closing more than 21% up on their level a month earlier. There seems to be real activity behind that movement: Rolling three-month ...

Prosus NV’s latest bid to acquire food delivery specialist Just Eat Plc was still little more than an appetizer. The Amsterdam-based technology investment firm raised its offer a measly 4.2% to 740 pence-per-share, while lowering the acceptance threshold to 50%. It had little alternative but to increase the value of its proposal: the recent recovery in shares of counterbidder Takeaway.com ...

Sterling has punched up to new highs for the year on the back of a comprehensive election victory for Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party. With the parliamentary handbrake on Johnson’s Brexit deal now released — and the trouncing of Jeremy Corbyn’s high-taxing, business-baiting Labour Party delivered with great force — we should see sustained pound gains. Nevertheless, as I outlined earlier, ...

Economics changed a lot in the 2010s, mostly in good and healthy ways. But much remains to be done in terms of the discipline’s public image, the reliability of its methods and the success of its policy recommendations. Here are a few ways that economics should strive to change itself in the 2020s: Reform Economics Education Economic research has become ...

This has not been a great century for working in retail. The sector, which added about 5 million jobs from 1980 through the end of 2000, has added only 416,100 since. Since January 2017, retailers have shed 145,200 jobs even as overall employment growth has remained strong. The obvious explanation here is the rise of online shopping. Nonstore retailers such ...

As another deadline for the return of Boeing Co.’s troubled 737 Max slips out of reach, the aerospace company doesn’t appear to have any better handle on its messaging now than it did when this crisis started more than a year ago. Federal Aviation Administration Administrator (FAA) Stephen Dickson told CNBC that the agency won’t complete the necessary approvals for ...