Opinion

When most people think of wealth in the modern economy, they tend to think of stocks and bonds. The word ‘capital’ is often synonymous with corporate ownership. Land wealth, meanwhile, is often relegated to a footnote. Yes, people own houses, but vast fortunes are made in the stock market, while the fates of nations rise and fall with the bond ...

Facebook Inc. had countless conflagrations in 2017, but financially it was on fire in a good way. Revenue climbed 47 percent through the first nine months of 2017. It generated a remarkable 46 cents of operating profit for each dollar of revenue, and its stock price shot up more than 50 percent. Facebook is the internet’s best combination of quickly ...

One of the worries about large tax cuts for corporations is that stock-market investors will benefit more than working-class wages. There is a growing concern that much of savings will be used for dividends or share repurchases, which would potentially boost returns for those invested in stock market. This is likely to accelerate US inequality because wealthy are now by ...

Europe could not have asked for a better end to 2017. Data from the Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index showed that economic activity was the strongest in nearly seven years. The unemployment claims rate in Germany is at its lowest level since the early 1990s. Even Greece’s factories are enjoying the best run in nearly a decade. Indeed, the euro-zone economy ...

It’s hard to believe it now, but once upon a time Indians had a far bigger appetite for outbound M&A than their Chinese rivals. That was just before the 2008 financial crisis, which dealt a body blow to India Inc.’s global ambitions. Then, in quick succession, came the credit-fuelled growth of China’s state-owned enterprises; the yuan’s appreciation; a string of ...

Investors love to complain that asset prices are too high, but they have only themselves to blame. Investors bid up the S&P 500’s price-to-earnings ratio to 26.8 at the end of 2017 from 11.1 when the 2008 financial crisis eased in February 2009, based on 10-year trailing average positive earnings from continuing operations. They drove down yields on the Bloomberg ...

This year, don’t count on the social networks to provide its core service: an uncensored platform for every imaginable view. The censorship has already begun, and it’ll only get heavier. A 2017 law in Germany obliging social networks to delete hate speech as soon as it’s reported or face massive fines went into effect on January 1 —and immediately claimed ...

For President Trump, a lot is riding on the economy in 2018. If it continues to do well, it should bolster his popularity and his claim that he understands it better than his critics. But if it slows or drops into a recession, it would weaken that claim — perhaps his strongest selling point. So, what’s the economic prognosis? First, ...

Boeing Co.’s purported bid for Embraer SA looks low. Boeing has been aggressively pursuing a takeover of the Brazilian regional jet maker, a remarkable shift for a company that dubbed a similar combination struck by Airbus SE and Bombardier Inc. in October ‘a questionable deal’ that wouldn’t force it to change its strategic path. Many details are still being sorted, ...

In the first 18 years of the new millennium, the US economy has fared much worse than it could have. If the Federal Reserve wants to improve that performance, it should consider changing the way it manages growth and inflation. Employment among people in their prime working years (ages 25 to 54) has yet to recover to where it was ...