Opinion

Jerome Powell’s debut rate-setting meeting as Federal Reserve chairman had few surprises. The quarter-percentage-point increase in the target for overnight US interest rates was expected. An added relief was policymakers’ decision to leave their median forecast for end-2018 rates unchanged. Yet the all-important dot-plot—committee members’ individual expectations—are telling Asia something more worrying. A possible fourth rate hike in 2018 hasn’t ...

History will probably remember Elaine Herzberg for a tragic reason: She’s thought to be the first pedestrian ever killed by an autonomous vehicle. Herzberg was struck by a self-driving Uber last week in Arizona, apparently stepping off a median and into traffic too quickly for the car’s sensors to detect her. Even Uber’s safety driver—the human backup sitting behind the ...

Just when the European Union seemed to have recovered some of its free-trade zeal, it now faces the prospect of a mutually destructive trade war with its biggest economic partner, the US. Escalation has risks for both sides. The US from counter-tariff measures and the EU from a fragmented response as some member states are tempted to accept US offers ...

The public is set to hear from Mark Zuckerberg soon to address the latest company crisis. Given how Facebook has mishandled its response so far, the company’s boss could use some advice. Here’s what no one needs from Zuckerberg: A pledge to “do better” or an attempt to recast Facebook as the victim of the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. ...

Climate change is profoundly unfair: By failing to address it, today’s leaders are imposing what could prove to be an unbearable burden on future generations. But how can they be made to recognize the danger and act? Using the US legal system, a group of children has found a novel way to do so. The 2015 Paris Agreement on reducing ...

Nectome promises to preserve the brains of terminally ill people in order to turn them into computer simulations — at some point in the future when such a thing is possible. It’s a startup that’s easy to mock. Just beyond the mockery, however, lies an important reminder to remain skeptical of modern artificial intelligence technology. The idea behind Nectome is ...

As US President Donald Trump prepares a wide-ranging package of tariffs and investment restrictions targeted at China, a trade war between the world’s two most important economies looks unavoidable. On the face of it, the US might seem to have the leverage it needs to win. Since it runs a huge trade deficit with China, the Chinese have a lot ...

Facebook Inc. is on a merry-go-round of crises, and it can’t get off. The question now is whether the latest episode in Facebook’s post-2016 period of reckoning will permanently mar its reputation, impair its business prospects and result in onerous regulatory handcuffs. Investors appear to have decided the answer is yes. In a day-and-a-half of stock market trading, Facebook has ...

The listing of a minority stake in Siemens AG’s healthcare technology unit was a pretty muted affair — and not just because trading didn’t start on time for technical reasons. That’s a good thing, in part. Spandex-clad dancers cheer-led the unit’s re-branding as “Healthineers” in 2016. You can relive the horror here. Siemens will be disappointed, though, that investors haven’t ...

Several developments last week indicated that the recent panic in the market for US Treasury bonds was a false alarm. The increase in average hourly earnings has slowed appreciably, reducing the risk of aggressive monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve. Inflation moderated from levels recorded at the beginning of the year. Retail sales dropped for a third month, belying expectations ...