Opinion

Around the world, governments are hitting on a modish new idea: Turn the internet off. Sometimes they mean it literally. Methods vary, but the trend is clear enough. Countries are increasingly ordering telecoms and other companies to block network access, shut down messaging services, or otherwise restrict digital applications or websites, usually citing public order or national-security concerns. In extreme ...

Southeast Asian nations no longer want your trash. Last week, Malaysia announced it was sending 3,300 tons of scrap plastics including CDs, insulated electric cables and milk jugs back to countries ranging from Australia to Bangladesh, Canada, China and Japan. Days later, the Philippines shipped back 69 containers of dirty Canadian diapers and other refuse brought into the country between ...

Pity Europe’s banks. For years, they have been in retreat, losing business in their own back yards to Wall Street rivals. Now the battlefront is shifting – but what looks like an opportunity to gain ground may be just the opposite. In wholesale banking, the pursuit of growth has moved away from the dealing floor – where revenue has been ...

The value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation is about $275 billion, which is around the same level as late November 2017. But a lot has happened in between, with values soaring to more than $800 billion at the every end of that year, and then plunging to barely $100 billion in late 2018. The wild swings are not unlike the ...

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” —John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech,January 20, 1961 Watching the Democrats’ presidential campaigns, it’s hard not to be struck by the huge gap that has opened up between Kennedy’s goal and what ordinary Americans now believe and practice. ...

Emmanuel Macron has marked out Matteo Salvini as his arch-nemesis in the fight against Europe’s far right. But his own actions are playing right into the hands of the most powerful person in Italian politics. The French president is preaching a pan-European agenda abroad, as he tries to win around Germany and other countries to his dreams for a more ...

India is becoming the gold standard for monetary policy in Asia, if not the world. While global markets are giddy from hints that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates, India’s central bank has been easing since February. Just as important, the Reserve Bank of India has been very consistent in its message: Borrowing costs need to come down to ...

Across the federal government, the knives are officially out for big technology companies. Avoiding a bloodbath should be a priority. As Bloomberg News reported, the House Judiciary Committee is gearing up to investigate unfair business practices by platform companies, while the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have divvied up Silicon Valley’s big four — Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook ...

After the relatively weak performance of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the European Parliament election, the party’s leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, is in trouble. There is a fear in the party that Chancellor Angela Merkel has messed up her succession, and Bloomberg News has even reported that Merkel herself doubts whether AKK, as she is known, is up to ...

The trade war needs to fire its PR team. The tussle between the US and China is being blamed for all manner of economic and financial developments. Some of these are only vaguely related to the tariff spat, or they reflect trends underway before US President Donald Trump ever heard of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. In other areas, like ...