Opinion

  Without much fanfare, some of the biggest names in tech have been pulling back on once-enthusiastic efforts to disrupt healthcare. Within the past nine months, Alphabet Inc has dismantled its healthcare division Google Health while IBM sold its Watson Health data and analytics business to a private equity firm, having struggled to turn a profit. It turns out healthcare ...

  Americans are reminded about high gasoline prices daily, every time they drive. Another energy cost comes to their attention monthly: utility bills. These are now also rising, creating an added problem for households, for the president — and, as it happens, for utilities. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida recently threw a curveball when he vetoed utility-friendly solar power legislation. ...

  Compared with the vocal and lavish support Ukraine has received from the US and the UK, that of Germany seems lukewarm, almost reluctant, especially to Ukrainians themselves. The moderation may be morally questionable, but it makes historical and political sense. Both Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the country he leads are already way out of their comfort zone. Yet notwithstanding ...

Debates among German intellectuals are usually so vapid, pretentious and painful to behold that I hesitate to wish the experience even on my worst enemies. But I’m making an exception for a phenomenon I’ll call the War of Open Letters. This ongoing philosophical conflict is about the brutal attack by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine, and the appropriate reaction ...

Nine out of 10 central banks are exploring electronic versions of physical cash, according to the Bank for International Settlements’ 2021 survey of monetary authorities released this month. Nearly everyone, it seems, is convinced that the future of money is digital. While that might be right, does every country need to be on the bandwagon just yet? Not really. Whether ...

  It’s time to mark cards for what has become the single most important data release for global markets: the US consumer price inflation data. This one is consequential, although perhaps not as important as it feels at present. The virtually universal expectation is that the headline annual CPI number will fall compared to the previous month, for the first ...

  Congress still hasn’t approved supplemental funding for Covid-19 vaccines, booster shots, treatments, tests and scientific work in a bill it’s been sitting on for months. Democrats have the tools to make it happen, but they aren’t using them. Republicans are filibustering against the bill in the Senate, holding the spending hostage in an attempt to get their way on ...

Even for a country that has weaponised the memory of World War II to the point where there is a word for hyperbolic celebrations of Victory Day — pobedobesie, or victory frenzy — this year marked a new high. With its military bogged down in Ukraine, the domestic propaganda machine latched onto past successes instead, going into overdrive ahead of ...

When I went to business school at the University of San Francisco, our class was instructed to build a portfolio that we believed consisted of 10 stocks that had the best ratio of reward to risk, or in other words, the highest Sharpe ratio. I chose gold mining company Placer Dome as one of my stocks. At the time, Placer ...

  The stirrings of springtime show nature awakening. Coaxed by warming air and stronger sunlight, flowers unfurl on cherry trees and eager green buds burst forth from horse chestnuts. A little hope returns, as bees buzz and birds build nests. This year, it’s been happening a little earlier — and the reason isn’t hard to find. In Washington, the city’s ...