Opinion

Opponents of the US congressional Democrats’ Green New Deal point to Germany as an example of a country where similar policies have backfired. They should take a closer look; the US could do well to imitate Europe’s largest economy. Here’s how the case against Germany goes: Despite a sustained effort to boost sustainable sources of energy, carbon emissions haven’t fallen ...

The European Union (EU) should “stop grumbling about Trump and start doing business with him,” according to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. That will be easier said than done. For why, look no further than the US President’s threatened auto tariffs. The US is looking at unilaterally imposing a 25 percent tariff on cars imported from abroad on the flimsy ...

China bears have had a bad decade. Repeated predictions that China’s large and growing pile of debt would lead to an economic crash have been wrong so far. The country sailed through the global financial crisis. It has weathered the slowing global demand for its exports, the drying up of its excess rural labour supply, slowing coal production, and the ...

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!” —Karl Marx Norman Thomas was not easily discouraged. Running for president in 1932, three years into the shattering, terrifying Depression, which seemed to many to be a systemic crisis of capitalism, Thomas, who had been the Socialist Party’s candidate in 1928 and would be in 1936, 1940, 1944 ...

The European Central Bank (ECB) has become the Schroedinger’s cat of global monetary policy. It has managed to be both awake and asleep at the same time. Three senior policy makers signaled concerns over euro-area growth in recent days. At last, officials are finally alive to the risks that the bloc’s situation has become serious. Terrible industrial sales and orders ...

Never mind the mixed signals about the state of global consumers, and never mind Amazon.com Inc.’s growing might. Walmart Inc.’s run of booming comparable sales growth continues unabated. The big-box giant reported that its US comparable sales rose 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, better than analysts had expected. It was its biggest growth on this ...

Singapore’s largest bank had only the briefest of honeymoons with an improving global economy. Rising global interest rates, amplified by US president Donald Trump’s late-cycle fiscal expansion, boosted DBS Group Holdings Ltd.’s loan profitability. But only up to a point. In the past three months, the two to four rate increases CEO Piyush Gupta expected from the Federal Reserve in ...

When it comes to the trade talks with China, US President Donald Trump and his negotiators have more leverage than any US administration has ever had. Chinese policymakers are desperate for a trade deal with the US in order to avoid more damage to China’s economy by further pressuring its trade surplus and export industries. There is speculation that Trump ...

Facebook Inc. might have one reason to be thankful for Brexit. UK lawmakers investigating disinformation and fake news published their findings. Among the select committee’s recommendations was the insistence that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Britain’s antitrust authority, conduct a “deep audit of the advertising market on social media.” There’s no doubt that the CMA is the correct body ...

Small businesses are a pillar of capitalism and of a healthy economy. They provide a path into the middle and upper-middle class for people who don’t have elite connections or a fancy college degree. And they distribute capital income broadly, so that the gains from business ownership aren’t concentrate among a few wealthy shareholders. Retail is a big component of ...