Opinion

The big economic news of the day was that real consumer spending rose in April by the most in three months, helping to push the S&P 500 Index to its biggest weekly gain since March. At first glance, this may be seen as a sign of resilience on the part of consumers despite the highest inflation rates since the early ...

  We don’t talk much about helicopter money anymore. After a debate that raged through the early days of the pandemic, it’s all but fallen off the map as a topic. That’s hardly surprising, given how radically economic conditions have changed. Rather than worrying about how to shore up a collapsing economy, the issue of the hour is how to ...

  “Russia,” predicted a British statesman, “will certainly rise again, perhaps very swiftly, as a great united empire determined to maintain the integrity of her dominions and to recover everything that has been taken away from her. While this process is going on Europe will be in a perpetual state of ferment.” Those warning words were written not in the ...

The first tourists have begun to trickle back into Japan, with a few guided tour groups arriving in a small experiment designed to get locals used to the idea of foreign visitors. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is promising to let in more package tours starting next month as the country starts to reopen. Foreigners have actually been visible for several ...

High-end shoppers are still spending, for now at least. After Kohl’s Corp Chief Executive Officer Michelle Gass pointed to a “bifurcation” of consumers, as some Americans traded up to premium brands while others downshifted to cheaper private labels, upmarket department store Nordstrom Inc has continued the polarisation theme. The seller of $1,000 Mach & Mach shoes and $2,000 Burberry trench ...

  It’s rare to see the Labour Party offer such a fulsome embrace of a set of Conservative policy announcements. Then again, opposition leader Keir Starmer’s shadow bench was really cheering Boris Johnson’s government adopting Labour calls for a windfall tax on energy companies and more help for consumers hit with cost-of-living increases. Democracy in action. Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

  The mass murder of children in Uvalde, Texas, coming just 10 days after the mass murder of shoppers in Buffalo, New York, moved former Senator Bill Frist — who was the majority leader of a Republican Senate when President George W Bush was in the White House — to issue a statement on guns: “We can find ways to ...

The only thing India can possibly do during this year’s global food crisis is to not make it any worse for its own poor. As the cost of basic nutrition balloons everywhere, the second-most-populous nation’s best bet is to fall back on its extensive system of state procurement and public distribution to soften the blow. But, around mid-April, Prime Minister ...

“Never the same again” was the name Marks & Spencer Group Plc gave to its effort to transform in the wake of Covid-19. But perhaps “Never had it so good” would have been more apt. As the high-street bellwether emerged from the pandemic, it benefited from consumers’ pent-up demand and the failure of a raft of rivals. Add in shoppers’ ...

  Stock-pickers are used to the concept of “value traps.” Many a stock that looks cheap turns out to be cheap for good reason. Fewer column inches have been devoted to “growth traps” — companies whose growth entices you in, only to disappoint. But that is changing in the month of May. The month has seen the US stock market ...