Opinion

Chuck Norris didn’t dial the wrong number; you answered the wrong phone. So the old joke goes about the paragon of omnipotence in the Walker, Texas Ranger television show. As the year draws to a close, it’s time to check in and see what Chuck might make of the current world of business and finance. Here goes: Chuck’s global macro …

For all the flaws of the Jones Act — the 1920 legislation requiring that all maritime commerce between US ports take place on ships owned, built and crewed by Americans — there’s no faulting its professed goal. The US needs a thriving maritime sector, for both economic and military reasons. The best way to achieve this is to lift the …

I’m a recovering smartphone addict, so you might expect me to welcome the French government’s decision to ban the devices in primary and middle schools. Actually, I don’t: The problem is the software, not the phones themselves. At best, banning smartphones would require kids to learn antiquated skills, something they arguably do too much of in school already. The modern …

Everything comes at a cost. To ensure steady economic growth, China is considering softening its focus on cutting debt in 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Let’s face it. It’s not realistic to reduce leverage when the whole economy relies on banks for financing,” an official told the Journal’s Lingling Wei. For emerging-market bulls, that’s the best news this holiday …

Blockchain technology, which has already been adopted by gold traders, is starting to show the potential to transform other sectors of the global physical commodities markets. While it wouldn’t necessarily boost commodity prices, the innovation could offer a secure means of exchange of raw materials, open up channels of trade among buyers and sellers that had until now have been …

Reviving manufacturing has become a prime policy objective for national leaders from Washington to Beijing to New Delhi. We can debate whether chasing factories is worth the effort in the 21st century, but not the difficulty of building and maintaining a robust industrial sector in the face of relentless global competition and technological change. At least one country seems to …

The 75,900 people following Lloyd Blankfein on Twitter have come to expect a regular dose of snarky Brexit commentary from the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO. Like a Zagat guide to euro-zone financial hubs, he has doled out praise to Paris and Frankfurt for its ‘nice weather,’ of course. The UK gets nul points. Blankfein frets he won’t be able …

Oil faces some new pressures and coal is on the outs. Those were two clear messages in the many energy investments and emissions strategies announced at the recent One Planet Summit in Paris: Consider, for example, these announcements. France’s AXA plans to divest 2.4 billion euros from coal and “completely divest from the oil sands industry and associated pipelines.” ING …

It’s hard these days to muster much interest in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Locked for years in rounds of negotiations leading nowhere, the body seems to have outlived its usefulness. Another big gathering of trade ministers ended in deadlock in Buenos Aires last week. You might wonder: Why bother? The answer is that liberal trade, second only to capitalism, …

In 2006 the Chinese government allowed Google to establish Google.cn for Chinese internet users. In return, Google agreed to scrub results of content that the government found objectionable. The deal held until 2010, when Google decided it could no longer agree to such terms. Within hours, the site was blocked and Google’s search business on the mainland was dead. The …