Opinion

Congress adopted a budget last week, paving the way for the introduction of a tax bill, and the White House responded (as it is wont to do) with a tweet. “Budget passes house,” it read. “Momentum for tax cuts growing. #TaxCuts #TaxReform.” Sadly, this message betrays a confusion that does not bode well for the prospects for smart tax reform. ...

Catalonia’s now ousted separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has to look for hopeful signs wherever he can get them. After Girona FC, his hometown soccer team, sensationally defeated Real Madrid 2-1 on Sunday, Puigdemont tweeted it was ‘an example and a reference for many situations’ — and added a winking emoticon. In reality, the weekend’s events showed Puigdemont and other Catalan ...

The status of bitcoin as a legitimate financial asset may be rising even faster than its price. Just last month, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, said that bitcoin was A) a fraud and B) something his bank would never touch. Dimon said he would personally fire anyone who deigned to trade it. CME group president Bryan ...

In his final months as European Central Bank president in 2011, a frustrated Jean-Claude Trichet lamented that “In the face of the crisis, we felt abandoned by conventional tools.” Economics models, he argued, could learn from other disciplines like physics, engineering and psychology; they should better capture the simple fact that humans are not rational, particularly in a crisis. His ...

Needing a victory to validate their majorities, congressional Republicans have chosen not to emulate Shakespeare’s Henry V before Agincourt. He advocated stiffening the sinews, summoning up the blood and lending the eye a terrible aspect. The Republicans would rather define victory down. What began with a bang of promises of comprehensive tax reform will end with a whimper: The only ...

Last weekend, officials in Puerto Rico announced that they’re pulling the plug on a controversial $300 million contract to rebuild the island’s electrical grid after Hurricane Maria. The previous contractor, Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC, a Montana company with just two full-time employees prior to the award, will leave the island within 30 days, while officials try to find an alternative ...

Hong Kong has tried just about everything to attract technology companies. It has incubators and accelerators, hubs and clusters, a Cyberport and an InnoCentre. The government has even established a lavish fund to invest in cutting-edge companies. Yet all this has produced nearly no startups of note. Don’t expect its latest idea to fare much better. Hong Kong’s securities regulator ...

As a response to the Russian campaign to sow discord in the 2016 presidential election, the so-called Honest Ads Act is wholly inadequate. It is also entirely necessary. The legislation, introduced last week by Democratic senators Mark Warner of Virginia and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, requires online platforms with at least 50 million monthly users — think Facebook, Google and ...

Given that the Indian economy has been reeling from one shock after another, a bit of good news would be welcome. And some has just arrived: The World Bank has declared that, over the course of a single year, India jumped from No. 130 to No. 100 in its “ease of doing business” ranking. The rise wasn’t entirely a surprise. ...

Samsung Electronics Co. made two major announcements recently amid its third-quarter earnings release. They need to be understood separately, but analysed together. First, South Korea’s biggest company pledged to double dividend payouts next year and dish out a total of 29 trillion won ($26 billion) in the three years through 2020. Second, the world’s largest maker of displays and memory ...