Opinion

The US Federal Reserve minutes show that central bank officials are increasingly committed to raising rates and shrinking the bank’s balance sheet. While economic signs remain mixed, continued growth, rising inflationary expectations, tightening labor markets and the need to temper asset prices would all seem to argue in favour of higher rates. Other central banks are likely to follow. The ...

There is a typical arc of bank scandals. Wells Fargo appears to be caught in a feedback loop, and its first-quarter earnings provided more evidence of that. Wells Fargo recently said that its quarterly earnings per share rose just 8 percent to $1.12, which was slightly more than the $1.06 analysts were expecting. The bank’s revenue of $21.9 billion was ...

As so often in the past, Mark Zuckerberg found himself apologizing this week. Testifying before Congress, he offered hours of penitence and self-reflection. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m committed to getting it right.” And just what would getting it right entail? In questioning Zuckerberg, the assembled members of Congress voiced a long series of abstract anxieties — about data collection ...

Nobody expects a coherent and consistent trade policy from President Donald Trump. But sometimes incoherence and inconsistency are to be welcomed. Trump has apparently directed his trade advisers to explore rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This instruction contradicts much of what has gone before — and is, in other words, a very good idea. Trump dumped this painstakingly negotiated pact ...

Central bankers have been dubbed ‘masters of the universe’ for the tools and powers they have acquired since the financial crisis. Some of them now want to play a more active role in the fight against climate change. Monetary authorities are right to be mindful of the way in which climate risk affects their mandate to ensure price stability and ...

Are you stressed out about the singularity? Living in fear of the day when computers decide that humans are no longer necessary? Not to worry, say some leading experts in Artificial Intelligence (AI): Research in the field might have actually hit a wall. No doubt, AI is everywhere. Computers assess financial news, identify viruses and even act as physics theorists, ...

South Dakota has become what South Carolina once was — stubborn, pugnacious and wrong. In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to vote to secede. In 2016, South Dakota’s legislature picked a fight in the hope that the US Supreme Court would reverse a prior decision, thereby handing the state a policy victory it failed to win in Congress. ...

The Congressional Budget Office last week released its annual budget and economic outlook report, and although the news was gruesome, the report was greeted in Washington with a giant yawn. The assumption among Republicans and Democrats is that the political rewards for curbing runaway budget deficits are too meager to justify the risks. There’s a consensus to do nothing — ...

When the French government unveiled its plan to make the national railway company more competitive and curtail benefit for some workers, commentators in France feared crippling protests comparable to those in 1995, when Alain Juppe’s government had to backtrack on rail sector reforms. Early signs were that President Emmanuel Macron would escape a similar fate. Polls showed support for his ...

Private equity has continuously cheering the fintech party. Francisco Capital’s purchase of electronic payments specialist VeriFone Systems Inc. helped to lift shares of French rival Ingenico Group SA on Tuesday amid speculation more deals will follow. All this looks more like a hangover cure than a new spin on the dance floor. While the underlying story of electronic payments is ...