Opinion

If President Trump fires Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, that won’t necessarily be the end of his investigation. Power to continue the probe, and report on its findings, could also rest with Beryl Howell, who as chief judge of the federal district court here oversees the Mueller grand jury. To prepare for the crisis that Mueller’s firing would cause, ...

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is crossing an important threshold. It’s about time. Once off limits, Japan’s eventual exit from ultra-loose monetary policy is now a public topic for Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. In testimony to the Japanese parliament this week, he said there are internal discussions on how to begin to withdraw from the bond buying that’s kept interest rates ...

A new season of the Mike Judge’s HBO comedy ‘Silicon Valley’ is happily upon us, which means that over the next two months or so we’ll be getting regular reminders of one of the show’s recurring themes: that those who toil in the Valley care about nothing so much as making the world a better place. Or, as Gavin Belson, ...

Trade-related topics that had been a sleeper have become a front-burner issue for investors. Equity prices and Treasury yields plunged on March 23 after the US announcement of a 25 percent tariff on up to $60 billion of Chinese exports. Over that weekend, both sides expressed interest in reconciling differences and markets reversed path when they opened March 26. If ...

Just as the market’s love for the FANG stocks turns to angst, the US government is looking to ban Chinese investments in its technologies. That’s a bigger problem for the country’s expensive chipmakers than their would-be Asian acquirers. Semiconductors and 5G wireless communications are among areas that would be placed off-limits under plans to invoke a law reserved for national ...

From West Virginia to Arizona, public-school teachers are in revolt. They are demanding better pay, and they deserve it — so long as their salaries are tied to their performance. It’s not that US teachers are underpaid; the median income for the country’s 1 million high-school teachers, for example, is more than 50 percent higher than that of the general ...

Everyone loves an underdog, unless it’s Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippine peso. The Philippines is Asia’s worst stock and currency market this year. A 6 percent slump in the benchmark index combined with a 4.6 percent slide in the peso means US dollar-based investors are looking at double-digit losses. Year-to-date, foreigners pulled more than $580 million from shares, after inflows ...

The return of volatility in the first quarter versus 2017 was our focus last week. Some interesting pushback followed the premise that prices seem to ignore news sometimes and at other times hang on every headline. My explanation: Most people have this correlation backward. Contrary to widespread belief, the news does not drive markets or prices; rather, it is the ...

There’s a line of thinking that Facebook Inc.’s business won’t be significantly damaged by the company’s series of scandals. But Facebook is already shifting how it operates in ways that will pinch its finances or limit its strategic maneuvers. First, it’s worth noting how little has changed for Facebook investors after two weeks of fury over the company’s role in ...

The competition for Amazon’s second headquarters is only getting fiercer. The politicking that goes with it ranges from subtle and behind the scenes to brazenly in-your-face. At stake is a destiny-changing bonanza that is a modern-day equivalent of a railroad siting. Amazon’s decision makers are weighing many factors among 20 finalist locations, and only they know how much certain variables ...