Opinion

The UK economy isn’t in recession. So why are some businesses having such a bad time? The number of profit warnings by British firms is at the highest in two years, with retailers and outsourcing firms among the worst-hit, according to accounting firm EY. Carillion Plc imploded this month, while shares of Carpetright Plc and Dignity Plc have seen 50 ...

Have you ever had the wild thought that if you shut your eyes really tight and then opened them again, you’d wake up and find that you were a kid again, and that your whole adult life had been one long dream? No more backaches, no more mortgage payments, just Saturday morning cartoons and Mom and Dad waiting for you ...

What goes up must come down, unless we’re talking about Boeing Co. The plane-maker — now also the biggest US industrial company after doubling its market value over the last year — reported fourth-quarter results last week that were nearly perfect. The recently passed US tax legislation contributed an outsized $1.74 to Boeing’s fourth-quarter earnings per share, equating to a ...

The re-election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in October was welcomed warmly by stock market investors. The reappointment of Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda to another five-year term starting this April would also be viewed as a reassuring sign of policy continuity. The Japanese tradition of naming economic expansions after Shinto deities dates back to the 1950s. A fitting ...

The leaked UK government forecasts of Brexit’s impact on the economy discusses several scenarios, none of them favorable. But the scariest takeaway was that London still isn’t clear on what kind of deal it’s capable of getting, or what it wants. Almost 600 days have passed since the referendum. The three scenarios discussed in the assessment dated January 2018, are ...

As President Trump prepares to appraise the state of the union, it’s worth remembering what still ranks as one of the worst decisions of his presidency: the withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It happened just about a year ago. You’ll recall that the TPP was an agreement between the US and 11 other countries — ...

Snubbing JPMorgan Chase & Co. investment bankers may soon become the norm in one pocket of Corporate America. But the bigger picture justifies the sacrifice. The largest US lender said on Tuesday that it’s teaming up with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to lower the cost of US employee health-care coverage. The move sent a shock wave through stocks ...

With elections in sight, India’s government is under pressure to loosen fiscal policy in its budget on Thursday. Tempting as this may seem, it would be a mistake. Chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian has made the most candid argument for relaxing the country’s tough fiscal stance: Given the political calendar, promises to honor the targets simply wouldn’t be believed. He ...

In a span of less than 24 hours, we went from a Bloomberg News report last week that China might reduce its exposure to US Treasuries to China’s denial and claims of ‘fake news.’ I suspect the original story and the denial had official backing, with the initial news viewed as a “temporary truth” that would dissipate like a Snapchat ...

As far as the European Union is concerned, it’s still 2010. If ever there was evidence that officials haven’t got the message that the crisis is over, you need look no further than Ireland. The European Union issued a 2.4 billion-euro ($3 billion) seven-year bond, and the funds will refinance some of Ireland’s bailout borrowings. As is always the case ...