Opinion

Big ideas are in the air. After a few years of fighting over a few percentage points in the top marginal tax rate, some leaders are starting to discuss sweeping changes in economic policy. One of these is the universal basic income, the idea of giving every adult citizen a yearly stipend. A second is the job guarantee, in which ...

Global banks are rushing to plant their flags in China. That doesn’t guarantee they’ll be winners. Last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lodged an application to take a majority stake in a securities company, having exited a venture where it was a junior partner. The Wall Street firm follows UBS Group AG and Nomura Holdings Inc., which were the first ...

Fujifilm Holdings Corp. should see the big picture. The Japanese company may have lost face in being beaten by activists, but the collapse of its $6.1 billion takeover of Xerox Corp. is a relief. Management can now go back to focusing on growth, rather than fighting the likes of Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason. The attempt to double down on ...

Can China, Lisbon, Brussels and international shareholders all get on? Last week’s bid for Portuguese power generator EDP-Energias de Portugal SA by China’s biggest clean energy group throws contrasting agendas into stark relief. Lisbon appears intensely relaxed about China Three Gorges Corp.’s 9.1 billion-euro ($11 billion) buyout plan. But shareholders, the European Commission and possible counter-bidders stand in the Chinese ...

Neither this year’s impressive corporate earnings results nor the synchronized pickup in global growth nor record levels of stock buybacks by companies has led to impressive gains in stocks. Despite a seven-day winning streak, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the May 11 trading session just 0.03 percent above where it started the year. It’s a similar story for the ...

Cracks are beginning to appear in the investment theses pinned to the future of robots and the rise of machines. Over the past 30 years, the cost of robots, now a feature of almost any production line, has fallen by about 50 percent, according to McKinsey & Co. Demand from industries from automotive to food, where the marginal value of ...

It’s been nearly two years since the UK voted to leave the European Union. But the intervening period has done nothing to resolve the question of what that should mean. Consider the latest Brexit-related fracas, which has seen members of Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet publicly squabbling about Britain’s future trade relationship with Europe. For many Brexit supporters, the debate ...

Is the US better off trying to sape the world as party to an imperfect international accord, or as an outsider insisting on better terms? One lesson from the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 ought to be: Rejecting ideas from allies merely opens the door to alternatives over which the US will have zero control. This wisdom is newly relevant, ...

In the late 18th century, French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote about the existence of a “social contract” between citizens and the government. A similarly unwritten set of rules exists between generations: Children promise they’ll take care of their parents, because they expect to be treated the same in the future. A new report by the Intergenerational Commission, a group of ...

UK house prices fell the most in eight years in April. That hasn’t stopped the parent company of shouty British tabloid the Daily Mail securing a 14-fold return from the property industry. Daily Mail & General Trust Plc says it will have pocketed 890 million pounds ($1.2 billion) from its 30 percent stake in ZPG Plc – owner of popular ...