Opinion

Tesla Inc.’s quarterly SEC filing has arrived. And while there is much to read through, one thing that usually emerges quickly from these documents is exactly how much revenue was made from regulatory credits. To recap, Tesla gets the credits for selling electric vehicles and then sells them to other carmakers that manufacture traditional cars. The pattern of revenue from ...

Speculation flew over the past day or so that Twitter was getting rid of its Like button. The social-media company quickly reassured the public that this was just one possible change among many being discussed as part of an internal dialogue about encouraging healthy conversation. But the mere fact that eliminating Like is being considered illustrates the problems with Twitter’s ...

It’s been an unsettling couple of years for an estimated over 3.5 million European Union (EU) nationals who live and work in the UK. They’ve been victims of attacks, pawns in the Brexit negotiations and, more recently, an afterthought as an army of civil servants and consultants map out contingency plans for various Brexit scenarios. None of that augurs well ...

As the US dollar hits highs for the year, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) seems determined to hold the value of the yuan at seven to one, or stronger. This barrier holds little technical significance, but its psychological value and the central bank’s interest in holding the line are enormous. While it’s difficult to confirm, there’s strong evidence that ...

For the Bank of Japan (BOJ), failure can be an opportunity. Judging from the latest economic forecasts, the central bank is falling even farther behind on meeting its 2 percent inflation target. Meanwhile, its efforts to keep interest rates down are bringing the bond market to the verge of a coma. So great is the BOJ’s buying to support its ...

The Federal Reserve’s confidence in its policy of interest-rate hikes was undoubtedly bolstered by last week’s report of a strong US economy. Look to Europe, however, and there are reasons to doubt that confidence. Economic growth in the Euro area was just 0.2 percent in the third quarter, it was reported, half of what had been forecast and in stark ...

Italy’s horror show has just started – and it’s bound to get worse. The country’s economy stagnated in the third quarter, according to latest figures. The slowdown may be part of a wider trend: the euro zone economy expanded by a meager 0.2 percent in same three months. But it’s clear that the uncertainty which has accompanied the rise to ...

The $12.8 billion bankruptcy of shadow lender Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS) is starting to offer a glimmer of hope. It’s about time. Unexpected defaults by the financier, owner, and operator of Indian infrastructure assets have caused a liquidity squeeze, which has brought strained relations between the government and the central bank to breaking point. The good news ...

The cryptocurrency market was roiled this month by something known as ‘stablecoins.’ These are an odd hybrid and among the most controversial and least-understood cryptocurrencies, but they’re important to the future of the internet economy. Up until October 10, the previous month had been quiet for cryptocurrencies. That’s when an intense burst of trading just before midnight New York time ...

How many jobs are vulnerable to automation? Plenty of people ask that question, and plenty of people try to give numerical answers. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said that about 46 percent of jobs have a better-than-even chance of being automated. A 2016 study by Citigroup Inc. and the University of Oxford reported that ...