Opinion

In the decades after the Civil War, federal taxes and spending in the US were about one-sixth or one-seventh as high as they are now as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). But that doesn’t really mean government was only one-sixth or one-seventh as big as it is now. For one thing, the US government gave away hundreds of ...

The US and China continue to head toward a possible trade war, as negotiations to bridge the gap between the two countries last week ended inconclusively. Donald Trump’s administration has demanded far-reaching Chinese concessions to reduce the bilateral trade deficit, address Beijing’s mercantilist trade practices, and open up key sectors of the Chinese economy to greater foreign competition. The White ...

Britain’s big four banks, branded dinosaurs by the many upstarts that have sprung up since the crisis, were supposed to be extinct by now. Yet with Brexit around the corner, their bulky balance sheets and dominant market share are proving hard to kill. Judging by the latest proposed pairing of two challengers — CYBG Plc and Richard Branson’s Virgin Money ...

UK regulators have given Barclays CEO Jes Staley what looks like a slap on the wrist after his botched attempt to unmask a whistle-blower. He will be fined, but will get to keep his job — lucky for the board, given their lack of appetite for a power vacuum at the top of one of the country’s biggest banks. Ousting ...

It was big news when Walmart Inc. agreed to buy most of Flipkart, India’s leading e-commerce company. Another online shopping king made a couple of moves that showed the importance of trying and buying in the real world. First, Amazon.com Inc. said last week that it had started to open “experience centers” in model homes to give people a taste ...

Walmart Inc. might want to portray its $16 billion purchase of India’s largest e-commerce firm, Flipkart Group, as a brilliant strategic move, long-planned in secret, that would allow the US retail giant to manage the transition away from big-box stores globally. Yet, the truth is that the deal represents a second-best outcome — if that — for Walmart as well ...

Many companies would shy from being lumped alongside indebted Chinese investment groups such as Fosun International Ltd. and HNA Group Co. It’s a comparison that Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. should welcome. Masayoshi Son’s company is trying to shed its image as a telecom operator. SoftBank’s US carrier Sprint Corp. has agreed to merge with competitor T-Mobile US Inc., leaving the ...

Millions of people received an email from Twitter last week advising them to change their password. Apparently a bug allowed some employees inside the company to see users’ passwords in plain text, creating the possibility that private information could be compromised. I received this email, read it and promptly deleted it. I forgot all about it until the subject came ...

If you’re surprised that last week’s trade negotiations between the US and China achieved little, take a look at the laundry list of demands the White House foisted on Beijing. President Donald Trump wants China to slash the trade deficit; end cyber theft of US technology; eliminate regulations impeding access for American companies; cease subsidizing new high-tech industries; and more. ...

India has millions of military personnel, billions of dollars in arms spending and grave threats on its borders, yet the nation doesn’t make its own fighter jets and anti-tank missiles. Is that a massive opportunity for investors? Not so fast. India has been striving toward defense self-sufficiency since the 1960s. The country has one of the world’s largest military budgets ...