Opinion

As its governing council prepares to meet in Frankfurt on Thursday, the European Central Bank finds its scope for action influenced not just by regional issues but also by the world’s other systemically important central banks. The ECB is wedged uncomfortably between, on one side, the Federal Reserve — which is able but unwilling to venture deeper into unconventional monetary …

What we are seeing in the continuing march of Donald Trump toward the Republican presidential nomination is the power and significance of political entrepreneurship. If you want to become president (or senator or House member), you don’t need the permission of either party. You just announce, comply with the legal requirements for filing and launch your campaign. You are the …

The recent air tragedies have drawn global attention to ensure air traffic safety. This new trend brings together the industry’s managers and policymakers closer to address the issue that worries travellers and is also a headache for the sector. Some air crashes were shrouded in mysteries and there are efforts to unearth what went wrong. One cause for concern is …

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did what he does best and made headlines around the world on Friday by ordering the military to be ready to use nuclear weapons at a moment’s notice. Following the UN Security Council’s vote Wednesday to hit Pyongyang with the strongest sanctions yet over its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, the dictator said the …

Many observers have already rolled their eyes as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, at the opening of China’s National People’s Congress this Saturday, announced a GDP growth target between 6.5 and 7 percent for next year. The Economist, in a bold, tongue-in-cheek prediction that is almost certain to be correct, notes that on January 17, 2017, when we’ll learn of China’s …

Clearly, the Chinese economy has problems, and now appears to be tumbling rather rapidly down along its so-called soft-landing path. Overcapacity began to emerge from around 2013 in the infrastructure sector as well as in numerous manufacturing industries such as shipbuilding, solar cells and wind turbines. The ability of both the public and private sectors to pay back their debt …

Around the time that polls were closing on Super Tuesday in the U.S., Communist Party news outlets in China began syndicating a 15-image slideshow: “The Erratic Trump is Actually a Winner in Life.” It opens with an image of Donald Trump’s extended family, and a list of reasons why Trump “couldn’t be more inspirational,” including his bestselling books, real-estate empire, …

Consider Donald Trump for a moment as a purveyor of men’s cologne. I quote from the merchandise section of trump.com, the website for his portfolio of “great” companies. “‘Empire by Trump’ is the perfect accessory for the confident man determined to make his mark with passion, perseverance and drive. … Bold notes of peppermint, spicy chai and a hint of …

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) expected move to announce new bold stimulus measures aim to reverse negative economic outlook in eurozone, even as some banking circles doubt such a step could help. The measures may include a further cut in interest rates, an increase in the volume of bonds it buys each month under its so-called quantitative easing or QE …

For all the positives in the latest U.S. jobs report, employees and the Federal Reserve didn’t get one thing they’ve been looking for: higher wages. Therein lies a central conundrum of this economic expansion. The February employment report suggests that the economy weathered January’s stock-market turmoil in decent shape. Nonfarm employers added an estimated 242,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate …