Opinion

Strange what qualifies as good news from the White House these days. President Donald Trump’s order on tariffs was more limited than first threatened and reassuringly vague. So yes, it could have been worse. Trump has given ground in the face of frantic representations from many Republicans and leaders of American business. “We’re going to be very flexible,” he says. ...

The potential for a trade war between the US and China may be intensifying, but don’t forget the innovation war. Although the US has stopped short of labeling China a “Strategic Competitor,” the Trump administration has effectively perpetuated the myth that China only excels by stealing intellectual property from others. Investors shouldn’t believe the rhetoric. With the world’s largest cashless ...

The expectations could not have been higher. After the election of Emmanuel Macron in France, there was hope that the euro zone could finally press ahead with an overhaul of its economic governance, which would make it more resilient in a crisis. The contours of the planned deal were very clear: Fiscally conservative countries, such as Germany, would agree to ...

From fish sauce to dairy, lumpy investment bets in Vietnam have typically been placed on the country’s teeming working class and its growing propensity to consume. Warburg Pincus has already been there and done that. The US buyout firm is now using its web of connections to wager on the nation’s new rich. The $370 million check it’s writing for ...

This year’s Pritzker Prize winner Balkrishna Doshi is best known for Aranya, a low-cost housing project in the central Indian city of Indore Here in the City of London, you can step out of Bank underground station and walk half a mile in any direction to see what Pritzker Prize-winning architects can do when they push themselves. At Bank intersection ...

China’s defenders are putting an optimistic spin on the country’s tilt towards one-man rule. Now that President Xi Jinping has set himself up to remain in power indefinitely, they suggest, he will have the runway to see through painful but necessary economic reforms that have long been resisted by various actors within China’s political system. In other words, even if ...

India’s unreformed banking system needs a massive privatization drive. The sooner this dawns on authorities, the better for taxpayers, investors and borrowers. Exhibit A is an index of share prices of state-run banks. It took one $2 billion fraud at government-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) to snuff out all the excitement over a $32 billion recapitalization of these moth-eaten institutions. ...

There’s a strange thing about the fear going through the global mining industry after the Democratic Republic of Congo signed an order to lift royalties last week: Compared with most other countries, these levies are still relatively low. The existing 2 percent rate on copper extraction compares with royalties five times that level in Chile and Peru, the two biggest ...

President Donald Trump’s approach to trade mainly offends allies for no reason, counters imaginary threats, and undermines deals that benefit the US. At the same time, his administration is also addressing a legitimate trade dispute: China’s alleged theft of intellectual property and forced technology transfers. True to form, the president appears to favor a response that would make the problem ...

The government of French President Emmanuel Macron recently announced an ambitious effort to reform the SNCF, the national railway operator. It’s an endeavor that puts Macron on a straight collision course with France’s most obstreperous unions. This is exactly the sort of direct confrontation that Macron has thus far avoided in his attempts to reform France’s sluggish economy. If the ...