Opinion

Where’s that inflation we were promised? That’s the question Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown asked economist Marvin Goodfriend during contentious hearings over his nomination to the Federal Reserve Board. In 2011, Goodfriend had said that inflation would grow more severe. But inflation, as the senators noted, has been relatively low since then. The Fed says it wants a measure ...

For once, the fine print in India hasn’t damped enthusiasm for the broad-brush plan. New Delhi’s Rs2.11 trillion bank recapitalisation, detailed last week, goes to the heart of state-run lenders’ acute capital shortage. With a little help from the global economy—and from finance minister Arun Jaitley’s forthcoming budget—India Inc. can finally rediscover its missing animal spirits. Soaring equity valuations will ...

The stock market is going gangbusters —but whether this reflects the economy’s underlying strength or runaway speculation is a question that stumps many experts. Hence, the need for this column: a primer on the red-hot stock market. Will it sustain the economy or ultimately kill it? The boom is undeniable. In 12 out of the first 15 trading days of ...

Although the world economy is in its eighth year of expansion, a casual observer might be forgiven for thinking things have just got going. Don’t worry; they will keep going for a while, according to the International Monetary Fund, which released an update to its World Economic Outlook this week. Thank the existing growth momentum and, yes, the often-maligned tax ...

It’s starting to look like smartphones are no longer the ever-reliable driver of global semiconductor demand. For the past decade, it was those touch-screen, internet-connected, selfie-taking devices that propped up the industry as the appetite for computers declined. STMicroelectronics NV on Thursday added to the chatter when it pointed to “unfavorable seasonal dynamics for smartphone applications” in forecasting a dip ...

Invoking a 1974 law intended to safeguard companies from unfair competition, the Trump administration has announced new tariffs on foreign-made solar panels and washing machines. Both measures are deeply misguided. At best, they will raise prices, threaten jobs, antagonize allies, encourage retaliation, and impede clean-energy development, all without offering any real benefits. At worst, they may herald a perilous new ...

Whatever you might say about Prime Minister Narendra Modi—and plenty of people have had a lot to say in the past—not even his critics have called him an uninspiring speaker. He has held spectators at vast election rallies spellbound, even groups of overseas Indians in arenas like Wembley Stadium. He is a big room, big occasion speaker, always able to ...

Despite the best labour market in a generation, Americans remain worried about the future of employment. Lately, the big worry is automation of jobs. Experiments like Amazon Go’s cashier-less store will perpetuate this anxiety. Americans perhaps should be more worried about an old-fashioned employment maneuver, however: outsourcing. The tech sector is already leading the way. Outsourcing tech jobs is nothing ...

The saga of Amazon.com Inc.’s search for a home for its second headquarters continues. The online retail giant recently announced that it has narrowed the field down to 20 cities. I’m happy to see that Raleigh, North Carolina, my own top pick, made the list. But there’s a worry that the scramble to lure HQ2 will give rise to wasteful ...

It seems like only yesterday that journalism faced existential challenges from technology platforms that helped anyone publish whatever they wanted, took over the distribution of news, and usurped the advertising market with promises of precise targeting. It turns out that the news profession can be quite successful at repelling those challenges. The enemy is in retreat; the news business just ...