Opinion

  The political crisis that pitched Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan from office wasn’t just about the failure of his anti-corruption agenda and mismanagement of an economy where inflation running at nearly 13% has driven months of opposition protests. It’s also, as with so many of Pakistan’s political crises, about energy and exchange rates. For decades, heavy dependence on imported ...

Russia has invaded and devastated Ukraine without the smallest provocation. Most North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) nations, led thank goodness by the US — two years ago, we could have expected nothing from the White House — join in condemning President Vladimir Putin’s aggression. Some are supplying military aid. Yet there is nothing like unanimity in Europe, never mind elsewhere, ...

California has become the focus of a battle over how companies should address the lack of diversity on their boards: Should they actively seek out directors who aren’t White males, or should they simply seek to treat all candidates equally? A Superior Court judge has ruled in favour of the latter approach, declaring unconstitutional a law requiring publicly traded companies ...

  W Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel “The Painted Veil” features a harrowing description of a cholera outbreak in a provincial Chinese city. “The great city lay in terror; and death, sudden and ruthless, hurried through its tortuous streets … The people were dying at the rate of a hundred a day, and hardly any of those who were attacked by ...

  Life isn’t getting easier for the Federal Reserve. US inflation remains way above target, supply blockages show no sign of easing, the labour market is stretched — and the pressure on prices continues to build. Many investors are expecting a faster pace of tightening from the Fed; but overdoing it risks pushing the economy into recession. Striking the right ...

America is following an “arsenal of democracy” strategy in Ukraine: It has avoided direct intervention against Russian invaders, while working with allies and partners to provide the Kyiv government with money and guns. That strategy, reminiscent of US support for Britain in 1940-41, has worked wonders. Yet as the war reaches a critical stage, with the Russians preparing to consolidate ...

Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter Inc for $43 billion — but he has only about $3 billion in cash on hand. Most of the fortune of the world’s richest man, which adds up to some $259 billion, is tied up in Tesla Inc and other nifty things. So if he’s serious about a takeover — and there is ample ...

  Two of Asia’s most important trading nations stepped up the fight against inflation as the battle with Covid winds down. Like the spread of the virus, officials need to reckon with a certain inevitability: The pace of price increases will only accelerate, in the medium term. No matter the response, there will be economic costs. The Monetary Authority of ...

  “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — the White Queen. Analysts trying to evaluate the prospects for a revival of Hong Kong’s economic fortunes under a new chief executive might be better off discarding their political science manuals and consulting Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass.” Assessing whether events will follow the course ...

  Tesco Plc has become the first British food retailer to warn about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis. But it’s worth remembering that inflation — even at a 30-year high of 7% in March — isn’t all bad for grocers. The company announced a rebound in underlying operating profit in the year to February 2022, up almost 60% to ...