Opinion

If there was ever a time for Japan and South Korea to engage in a supply-chain spat, this isn’t it. Last week, Japan moved to restrict exports of materials used to make semiconductors and smartphone screens to its North Asian neighbour, citing grievances between the two countries dating back seven decades. The curbs threaten the flow of components that feeds ...

Softbank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund has invested its $100 billion cash pile in 75 unicorns around the world. Not a single one is from Japan, its own backyard. That may be because the pickings are slim: While the US has 179 unicorns, China 93, and India 18, Japan has just two, according to CB Insights. How can a country that ...

Judy Shelton, the economic adviser President Trump says he is nominating to the Federal Reserve Board, has long been a predictable voice in monetary policy debates. Predictability is often a good thing in that context: It beats being erratic. Many monetary policy specialists want central banks to minimise the possibility of surprises by announcing relatively simple rules they will follow. ...

Rejoice, people of Earth! News outlets are reporting that Nasa is planning to visit an asteroid made of gold and other precious metals! At current prices, the minerals contained in asteroid 16 Psyche are said to be worth $700 quintillion — enough to give everyone on the planet $93 billion. We’re all going to be richer than Jeff Bezos! OK, ...

China’s steelmakers have had enough of the squeeze. The government needs to “maintain normal iron-ore market order” and push prices back to “reasonable levels” Qu Xiuli, vice chairwoman of the China Iron & Steel Association, or CISA, told a conference in Shanghai. It’s not hard to understand the frustration. Iron-ore costs in June amounted to about a third of the ...

Most people will be happy to see the back of the combustion engine. Cleaner air and less dependence on oil are good reasons to look forward to the mass adoption of electric cars. But for the 3 million or so Europeans working in the auto industry, the transition to the new technology is a source of great anxiety. While the ...

It makes sense for investment banks to cut businesses where they’re too small to be competitive and staying in is costly. So Deutsche Bank AG’s exit from equities trading is overdue. That doesn’t mean life is going to get any easier, in Asia at least. The German lender is counting on its strength in fixed-income and currencies trading to pivot ...

Asset managers are increasingly using their financial clout to persuade companies to be friendlier to the planet, wielding a combination of the stick of disinvestment and the carrot of engagement. But can the financial world do more to ensure countries and their central banks are also meeting their environmental, social and governance responsibilities? Travel platform from AtoB.com scrutinised the 2018 ...

Before I offer thoughts on President Donald Trump’s latest two nominees to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors and the challenges they face, some full disclosures are in order. I interviewed for one of the open governor positions at the White House in late May. I have an unconventional background for a Fed governor as I don’t have a Ph.D. ...

It will take more than a few protests to cool Hong Kong’s real estate market. The latest round of social unrest has homeowners worried that the local economy, especially the property sector, will suffer. In fact, the market is only going to get hotter — if it can weather the current round of chaos. The city has been in turbulence ...