Opinion

The slowdown that began among India’s shadow banks is spreading. Sectors that had come to depend on credit from what in India are called non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are posting awful numbers. Insurance is slowing and real estate is troubled. The automobile sector — which contributes half of India’s manufacturing output — is shrinking as stressed shadow banks prioritise survival ...

Twenty-five years ago, as a young physicist, I worked on research linked to fusion energy. Nuclear fusion powers sun and stars through reactions that turn hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei, and if we could master the process on Earth, we’d have a safe and virtually limitless source of clean energy. At conferences every year, scientists from around the world gathered ...

The European Commission is largely hap-py with the first year of its sweeping digital privacy rules. Evidence moun-ts, however, that the General Data Protection Directive, or GDPR, as applied today hur-ts smaller firms and has no effect on tech giants, which are the least interested in preserving user privacy. The directive went into effect in May 2018, demanding companies provide ...

Some investors are fretting that the massive global buildup of debt since the financial crisis a decade ago can’t be sustained. It can, at least for a bit longer — but only at the risk of a more severe correction in the future. That’s because this particular credit cycle may not be typical. The current expansion is largely policy-driven. Governments ...

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney says investment funds that promise to allow customers to withdraw their money on a daily basis are ”built on a lie.” The chief investment officer of Europe’s biggest independent asset manager agrees with him. “There is no point denying we are faced with a looming liquidity mismatch problem,” says Pascal Blanque, who oversees more ...

As you’ve probably heard, House Democrats have cut a two-year budget deal with Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump to suspend the federal debt ceiling and increase federal spending by $320 billion. The debt ceiling is an arbitrary and possibly counterproductive construct, while the spending increases aren’t all that big if you assume that inflation will continue at about 2 ...

A Chinese company in Guangzhou recently exported 300 used cars to buyers in Cambodia, Nigeria, Myanmar and Russia. The shipment was a first for China, which till now had restricted large-scale exports of used cars in deference to manufacturers, who feared that poor vehicle quality could damage their reputations. There will be more such shipments — and their impact will ...

Hong Kong’s ambitions to be an international data-center hub are a potential casualty of the city’s mass protests. Privacy brea-ches stemming from a summer of clashes between demonstrators and police threaten to erode confidence in the city as a base for foreign companies to set up storage facilities. To alleviate concerns, the government needs to improve security and regulation in ...

An abrupt reshuffle at the top of India’s finance bureaucracy makes it unlikely that country’s inaugural issue of a controversial sovereign bond overseas will happen now. It’s just as well. Borrowing in a foreign currency, possibly dollars, would have set back New Delhi’s attempt to drum up more global interest in rupee debt. An unexpected meeting of minds for-med between ...

It’s a done deal. Almost everyone, or so it seems, believes the Federal Reserve will cut short-term interest rates at next meeting when its main decision-making body meets. President Trump favours lower rates. So do many economists, including some fierce Trump critics. Similarly, Fed Chairman Jerome “Jay” Powell says the Fed wants to sustain the economic expansion. Finally, Wall Street ...