Opinion

India needs a strategy to get the government out of banking. Non-performing loans among state-owned banks — a legacy of India’s socialist past which account for nearly 70 percent of deposits — have crossed 5 percent of GDP. The central bank has restricted lending at 11 of them and forced one, IDBI Bank Ltd., to sell itself to the government-owned ...

We Americans have long been obsessed with economic growth — “pros- perity” in everyday lingo. The idea that we have some sort of special aptitude for invention, wealth creation and economic self-improvement is part of our imagined national character. It’s who we are. Not only that, but prosperity plays a crucial political role. It enables us to raise living standards ...

The escalating trade war is forcing automakers to rethink how they do business. BMW AG has just put its chips on the table in China. The German company could become the first foreign carmaker to own a majority stake in a Chinese joint venture as it mulls a new ownership structure for its arrangement with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd., ...

If something cannot go on forever, well then, it will eventually stop. So said economist Herbert Stein when he made this obvious but insightful observation. Trees do not grow to the sky, and matters that are truly unsustainable eventually come to an end. The most recent example of something that can’t go on forever has been the inflows into low-cost, ...

Announcing plans for additional tariffs on $200 billion of imports, the Trump administration has taken another dangerous step toward escalating its trade war on China. China’s response, so far, has been measured, and that’s encouraging. The US Congress has managed only the feeblest gesture of protest, and that’s disgraceful. The president has told US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to draw ...

The European Commission had solid antitrust reasons for fining Google 4.3 billion euros ($5 billion) for violations including the bundling of certain apps with the Android operating system — and for not going after Apple for similar behaviour. Yet, from a consumer’s point of view, Apple should get the same kind of attention. The most important infraction by Google in ...

When a company vehemently rejects an unsolicited bid approach, it needs to convince investors that it made the right decision. Unilever, which saw off a $143 billion approach from Kraft Heinz Co 18 months ago, is doing just the opposite. The company reported second quarter organic sales growth below analysts’ expectations. There was some better news on the underlying operating ...

What do you do when your dumping ground cleans up its act? That’s the problem confronting the oil market as the global shipping industry starts implementing regulations to limit its consumption of sulfur, a common impurity in crude that can cause respiratory problems and acid rain when it’s burned. As we saw in a column, rules on sulfur content coming ...

The Trump administration may have declared it over, but a new War on Poverty is coming anyways. It will be fought largely over the “work requirement” — should the government require welfare recipients either to get a job or to train for one? It’s a philosophical as much as a practical question. A work requirement addresses a dilemma of all ...

Morgan Stanley is, all of a sudden, Wall Street’s big spender. The Wall Street firm reported second-quarter earnings that were broadly better than expected. Most notable was Morgan Stanley’s fixed-income and commodities trading, which beat expectations. Rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc missed in that unit, where it had once dominated Morgan Stanley, but the fortunes of the two firms have ...