Opinion

The latest US government report on climate change illustrates how expensive the phenomenon can be: It estimates that more frequent flooding, more violent hurricanes and more intense wildfires, among other things, have cost the country $1.1 trillion since 1980. What’s particularly striking, though, is how much the report and others like it are still missing. For two decades, researchers have ...

Britain’s housing market is vanishing before our eyes. It’s not that prices are in free-fall — so far — but the number of transactions actually completing is dwindling fast. The slowdown in London has worsened sharply since June. Houses of all prices have been hit, the data from the Land Registry show. By September, the drought had hit hardest those ...

When it comes to ethics, appearances matter — as Wilbur Ross is learning the hard way. ‘Appearance,’ Plato observed, ‘tyrannizes over truth.’ President Donald Trump’s administration should keep that in mind when attending to its latest conflict-of-interest scandal. According to news reports based on leaks from a Bermuda law firm, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross did not disclose business ties with ...

In the annals of economic experimentation, India’s cash ban will stand out. Not because it was ill-advised, poorly executed or unsuccessful in achieving its original aims. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to outlaw 86% of his country’s currency a year ago today was all those things. What made it remarkable, though, was the way it flew against the zeitgeist. While ...

In Africa, the plastic shopping bag is an endangered species. Last week, tiny Benin became the latest African country to restrict the import, production and even use of such bags. It’s not messing around, either. Following in the steps of Rwanda (where plastic bag importers are publicly shamed) and Kenya (where bags users can be subject to four years in ...

Let’s not mince words: Eight months after Snapchat went public, the company is a disaster. Parent company Snap Inc. turned in its third earnings report as a public company, and for the third time its shares tanked when both revenue and user growth were disappointing. Snapchat also disclosed it would change the fundamental character of its app—the sole significant revenue ...

An ice-blue 14-story office tower called Ducat Place III is the building that President Trump might have constructed here. But like so many other Trump adventures in Russia, this one proved a tantalizing but futile dead end. Trump is angrily dismissive when questions are raised about his Russian contacts. He calls the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III ...

In Southeast Asia, mobile banking is taking on a whole new meaning. Last week, Grab, one of the region’s top ride-hailing companies, announced that users of its app can start sending credits—used to pay for rides—to each other. By the end of the year, they’ll be able to use those credits at more than 1,000 restaurants and retailers. If all ...

Few doubt that the British economy will be severely hurt if the UK leaves the European Union without a new agreement on trade and regulation. But there are risks for the EU, too. One that’s received too little attention concerns bank resolution. A cliff-edge Brexit could make it much harder for EU authorities to impose losses on investors in the ...

French President Emmanuel Macron has accomplished more in six months than his predecessor managed in five years. Trouble is, that’s a low bar — and Macron will need to keep pushing if France’s economy is to achieve its full potential. Macron’s first phase of reforms addressed the country’s 3,000-plus pages of labor rules. The changes are aimed at lightening the ...