Opinion

Technology companies that target fickle consumers can die in a flash. (Juicero, anyone?) The ones that sell technology to businesses tend to hang on a bit longer. That’s why old-guard technology companies that have lost relevance and stopped growing — think BMC Software, Compuware and Tibco Software — have been ripe takeover targets in recent years for the private equity ...

Christine Lagarde’s nomination as president of the European Central Bank takes Mario Draghi a step closer to the end of his term. The Italian academic will step down in October after eight momentous years, during which he made the ECB the most important institution in the monetary union. That doesn’t mean, however, that he should retire from front-line policymaking. A ...

India will need $1 trillion of infrastructure investment to nudge annual GDP growth higher by just half a percentage point in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second five-year term. Of this, at least 55 percent will have to come from public resources. Where’s the money? Those figures from an analysis by the Confederation of Indian Industry are the No. 1 challenge ...

Ever since the economist Milton Friedman claimed the sole responsibility of business was to maximise pro-fit, there’s been a lively debate about whether companies sh-ould have other, more socially beneficial aims. It’s pretty much accepted practice, though, for a firm to try to sell more of their products and services. To not do so is a good way to go ...

For weeks now, financial markets have been treating a July interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve as a sure thing. That’s a big deal because over the past quarter-century, the central bank has never failed to deliver when implied odds reach 100 percent. I’m certainly not one to fight the bond markets. But … there’s a first time for everything. ...

Is there any method to Donald Trump’s madness on trade? Politicians and investors are all struggling to make sense of the US president’s tendency to stop, go, and reverse course in his dealings with China and Europe. Financial traders went to sleep basking in the glow of a trade truce with Beijing. They woke up to the news that the ...

Members of Congress are finally getting serious about protecting privacy online. If only they had some better ideas on how to do so. The latest entrant is a bill sponsored by Senators Josh Hawley and Mark Warner. Among other things, it would require big tech platforms such as Facebook and Google to tell users how much money their personal information ...

Step One complete for Tesla Inc.: Deliveries secured. The company reported second-quarter production and sales numbers after the market closed, and they were smack in the middle of guidance. With doubts about Tesla’s ability to hit its figures after the first quarter’s washout, delivering more than 95,000 vehicles — a record — provided the predictable shot in the arm for ...

Christine Lagarde, nominated to lead the European Central Bank (ECB), will need all her proven attributes, and help from others, to succeed as the new leader of one of the world’s three most systemically important central banks. An inspired choice, she is uniquely well placed to build on her accomplishments as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. In ...

The world’s largest car market is grappling with a sharp slowdown. What’s the best remedy? China’s car sales and output have fallen dramatically every month since July 2018. Inventories are piling up, especially for autos that don’t comply with emissions regulations, which will kick in next month for a large part of the country. Beijing has pulled out all the ...