Opinion

Kevin Hassett evidently has not received the memo that economics is ‘the dismal science.’ The ebullient chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers is relishing the intellectual feast of applying to policymaking the predictive tools of a science that was blindsided by the Great Recession. Economists, like other scientists, learn things even when — actually, especially when — they ...

Poor Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. China’s third-most-indebted developer, already burdened by its acquisition of Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s hotel portfolio, has once again had to push back its A-share listing, just as more evidence emerges the government’s real-estate-cooling measures are starting to bite. R&F said on Sunday its planned float of shares in China, mooted as far back as May ...

High stock prices. It’s a chief reason voters gave for coming out again in favor of Shinzo Abe, who cinched another term as Japan’s prime minister on Sunday. Watching Japan’s stock market tick up to its highest level in two decades is a bit like watching the ‘likes’ accumulate from your so-called friends on a popular Facebook post. Affirmation tends ...

By nearly any measure, Facebook Inc. is an extraordinary success. Its market capitalization exceeds $500 billion. Its user base outnumbers all but one continent. Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive officer, is one of the world’s wealthiest people. No one should begrudge Facebook (or Zuckerberg) this success. Yet as it begins to play a more central role in American media and ...

For most Indians, the festival of Diwali is well worth the wait. Houses are brightly lit, boxes of sweets are exchanged—and accounts for the year are closed. The Hindu festival of lights also heralds the beginning of winter, the few months when the baked northern plains of the subcontinent become marginally more liveable. Except in India’s giant capital. Here in ...

President Donald Trump is about to select a new Federal Reserve chair. Whether it’s Jerome Powell, Kevin Warsh, or even current head Janet Yellen, the choice will mark a shift in Trump’s tenure leading the world’s biggest economy. That’s because the president, who railed against Yellen during his 2016 campaign, will now be assuming ownership of this credit cycle and ...

Since talks on the UK’s exit from the European Union kicked off in June, there have been five negotiating rounds backed by speeches, press conferences and shuttle diplomacy. And yet the UK and Europe are no closer to agreeing about what their future relationship should be, or even settling the divorce bill. Now the question is whether there will be ...

Looking at photographs of the ruined, desolate streets of what was once the IS’s capital of Raqqa is a reminder of the overwhelming, pitilessly effective military power of the United States. Perhaps it’s a tribute to the inevitable nature of American force, once it’s engaged, that the fall of Raqqa this week provoked so little public discussion. Commentators focused on ...

Remember this when you see your Netflix bill rising: It has to be this way. The company has recently warned price increases are coming for many subscribers in the US and other countries. It’s happening because Netflix Inc. has been spending a small fortune to supply homes with entertainment —such as ‘Narcos’ and ‘Stranger Things’—that it creates itself, owns and ...

UK supermarket giant Tesco Plc announced this week it will buy back up to 700 million pounds ($921.6 million) of its outstanding debt across a series of its bonds — and then cancel it. Yields fell sharply on the news. This should surely send a clear signal to rating companies that it is on the path back to an investment ...