Opinion

When companies turn to gimmicks as the headline act in a product launch, you know there’s not much really going on. We can’t blame Samsung Electronics Co. and Huawei Technologies Co. for releasing $2,000 and $2,600 phones respectively. Foldable screens are kind of cool, I suppose. But so are those weird and wonderful concept cars the auto industry likes to ...

It seems Amazon.com Inc. will be paying zero tax on its profits of roughly $10 billion in 2018. This has caused an outcry in certain quarters, but the complaints are misplaced. The corporate tax code is riddled with loopholes and has plenty of misguided preferences — some of them new, thanks to the tax-reform measure passed in 2017. But the ...

There’s an old theory that as an organism develops, it progresses through the same evolutionary stages traveled by its ancestors. Traditionally, economic development has worked in a similar way. When a country first shifts from agrarian poverty to industrialisation, it tends to start out in light manufacturing, especially textiles. Later it masters more complex manufactured products, and finally it progresses ...

Just because it’s a bargain, doesn’t mean it’s worth it. Associated British Foods Plc has said its Primark discount clothing chain had performed well in the UK in the first half of its financial year, offsetting difficult conditions in Germany. This comes days after value bakery brand Greggs Plc said full-year underlying pre-tax profit was likely to be ahead of ...

As promised by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, US central bankers have embarked on a comprehensive review aimed at making monetary policy more effective. They will draw on both internal and external inputs and, according to a report over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal, consider “whether to allow inflation to rise above their 2 percent target more often ...

As Democrats swing left, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine what their triumph in the next election would mean for America. The presidential candidates endorse a variety of far-reaching proposals that, if adopted, would represent the largest expansion of government since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. The added spending, taxes or deficits could total hundreds of billions. Are these sound economic ...

Spare a thought for the European Central Bank (ECB). The minutes of the last Governing Council show the central bank is in a bind over the state of the euro zone recovery and the next steps to take. Still, it is hard to see why they shouldn’t be. The economic picture is objectively confusing. The problem is that we have ...

No one should be surprised that Wayfair Inc.’s earnings report showed that it had a gangbusters holiday season, with retail sales growing 41 percent from a year earlier. After all, the digital home-goods seller had already said its sales were up 58 percent from a year earlier during the five-day stretch, suggesting it had started the season with a bang. ...

President Donald Trump’s decision to delay new tariffs on Chinese imports is good news. There’s no guarantee he’s about to strike a sensible agreement on trade with Beijing, but the suspension of hostilities is welcome. Trump’s approach up to now has become all too familiar. Ratchet up tensions with incendiary rhetoric; impose unilateral sanctions; engage in talks ending in incremental ...

Whether or not you believe the Russian economy grew 2.3 percent last year, beating the most optimistic expectations, the Russian Economy Ministry doesn’t want anyone to expect a repeat in 2019. That doesn’t mean there will be no baffling statistical anomalies this year, only that, realistically, there’s no reason for a rapid economic expansion. Russia’s official statistical agency, Rosstat, where ...