Opinion

The National Science Foundation and the National Science Board have just released their biennial ‘Science & Engineering Indicators,’ a voluminous document describing the state of American technology. There are facts and figures on research and development, innovation and engineers. But the report’s main conclusion lies elsewhere: China has become — or is on the verge of becoming — a scientific ...

I think we can all agree that, absent a war or some deliberate strategy, a 14 percent drop in a country’s oil production in the space of one year is not a good thing. Even worse, though, is a 29 percent drop. These two realities, both undesirable, were presented for Venezuela in OPEC’s latest monthly report, out recently. The oil-exporters’ ...

If you’re hung up on the potential upside (or pitfalls) of Bitcoin mining for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., then you may be missing an even bigger story. Cash. Yup, good old cash. You remember the stuff; it’s used for tipping bellhops, filling red envelopes and shoving under mattresses. TSMC, which makes chips for Apple Inc. and for Bitcoin miners, is ...

The performance of US Treasuries in 2017 confounded many, as the bonds kept to range-bound trading in the context of both higher growth and rate tightening by the Federal Reserve that went beyond initial market expectations. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the recent move up in yields has triggered so many reactions, including warnings that we may ...

What to do if you’re a 95-year-old billionaire and you live in a country with inheritance taxes as high as 65 percent? That’s the challenge facing the family of coffee baron Kim Jae-myeong, honorary chairman of Dongsuh group, who built a fortune valued at $2 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Kim, who’s never appeared on an international wealth ranking, ...

What do carpets and coffins have in common? They are both suffering as the internet makes prices more transparent and consumers shop around. That’s the message from both Carpetright Plc, which has been floored by a slump in demand, and funeral director Dignity Plc, whose earnings will be six feet under this year. Analysts’ expectations for Dignity’s 2018 earnings are ...

As the world watches to see if Emmanuel Macron succeeds in shaking France out of its statist torpor, it should bear in mind that he would first need to somehow bypass the country’s entrenched mandarins, the elite-educated cadre that run France’s most important bureaucracies and whose cohorts tend to have leadership roles throughout French industry; they often have the biggest ...

Call them the new millionaires. Once upon a time — certainly within living memory — becoming a millionaire was a big deal. It was a badge of economic distinction, enjoyed by a tiny elite. No more. By 2016, slightly more than 9 million US households had a net worth of $1 million or more, according to new calculations by economist ...

Everyone is still trying to sort out the implications of Facebook Inc.’s news feed reboot announced last week. One thing I’m wondering about: Why hasn’t Facebook taken the hatchet to the “like” button? Mark Zuckerberg says he wants more “meaningful social interactions” on Facebook. He doesn’t want people to spend so much time scrolling around aimlessly on Facebook or otherwise ...

It’s ‘seismic.’ At first glance, last month’s 52 percent decline in the number of job openings in London’s financial industry looks dramatic. In Brexit there’s an easy bogeyman to blame. But the picture isn’t so clear. Take the survey that recruiting firm Morgan McKinley, from which that figure comes. You need to adjust it for seasonality: December is never a ...