Opinion

The net neutrality war rages on. Last week Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, dismantled rules the Barack Obama administration put in place in 2015 requiring internet service providers to treat all internet traffic the same. Supporters are elated, and opponents are rending their garments: Presumably, then, the decision is of vast significance. Actually, it’s hard to say ...

What do German dentists and architects have in common with Yorkshire council workers? Bizarrely, they’re all part-owners of Airbus A380s. Airbus SE is struggling to sell the A380 and a second-hand market hasn’t become established yet. But Airbus isn’t the only one facing a problem: German retail investors and British pension funds have savings tied up in alternative investment vehicles ...

For a central banker, nothing beats a (non) decision on interest rates as a way to bury some bad news. Amid the excitement of last week’s meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB), the regulator slipped out some unwelcome changes to its rule-book: banks will no longer be able to use some senior unsecured bonds as collateral when getting funding ...

Ever since the financial crisis, the European Union has grappled with how to solve the so-called sovereign bank doom loop — the phenomenon whereby weak banks can destabilize governments that support them and over-indebted governments can push banks holding their bonds over the precipice. The widely touted solution is the European Banking Union, which the European Commission wants completed by ...

Last June, the center-left government in Sweden proposed cutting the country’s top corporate tax rate, already a below-the-international-average 22 percent, to 20 percent. The rate cut would be offset by a set of limitations on the deductibility of interest, so overall the Swedish government — currently running a fiscal surplus of more than 1 percent of gross domestic product — ...

At the eleventh hour, KKR & Co. has clinched what is likely to be Europe’s biggest leveraged buyout of 2017. The US private equity firm’s 6.8 billon-euro ($8 billion) agreement to buy Unilever NV’s spreads business will need some full-fat ingredients to generate a decent return. The Anglo-Dutch consumer giant put the business on the block in April after Kraft ...

For Wells Fargo & Co., is the worst over? The scandal-plagued bank’s recent stock revival suggests yes, maybe it is. But even if there are more revelations to come, there’s a good chance that the shares may hang onto its gains. While it continues to lag rivals and the benchmark US bank index since last year’s presidential election, the San ...

Departing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is leaving US monetary policy in pretty good shape, and her colleague and successor, Jerome Powell, can be expected to continue her record of stewardship. As always, though, the economy may have other ideas. The Fed will most likely raise interest rates another quarter-point — the latest step in a carefully laid out plan ...

Like much else about Pakistan, it’s often infuriatingly difficult to determine whether or not its economy is on the brink of disaster. This week, as the Pakistani rupee lost 5 percent of its value in just three days, it looked like trouble was brewing. And sure, this might be a sign of the economy slipping towards a balance-of-payments crisis. But, ...

Hong Kong’s move to allow dual-class shares should attract a wave of listings by Chinese technology companies. It won’t be enough for the city to challenge New York as the global hub for new-economy fundraising. Despite a year of hot flotations that included firms backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Hong Kong is close to being ...