Opinion

If you’re wondering what gave rise to populism, look no further than the lack of real income growth. With purchasing power for most either flat or declining for more than a decade, voters rejected mainstream politicians in Western Europe and North America and turned to the fringes on the far right and far left. Now, though, there is evidence that ...

China may be an even bigger economic deal than we thought. Almost everyone knows that, in the past three decades, China has gone from a huge and poor nation to the world’s biggest exporter and second-largest economy. Now, in a new report, two economists claim that China’s emergence explains a lot more. Specifically, they say it fostered three major global ...

Two years ago, Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy photographed lying face down on a beach near the Turkish resort of Bodrum, stirred the conscience of many Europeans. That moment of guilt and shame already seems past. We’ve barely noticed that since Kurdi’s death at least 8,500 people, many of them unescorted children, have died or disappeared while attempting to ...

With its decision to nullify the results of last month’s presidential election, Kenya’s top court has invalidated the votes of some 15 million citizens. It has also struck a blow for democracy that will reverberate across Africa. Now comes the hard part: Holding new elections within 60 days that are untainted by the irregularities, intimidation and violence that have scarred ...

President Donald Trump is not generally the reticent type. When it comes to the fate of almost 800,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers, however, he has been unusually quiet. Trump is under pressure from conservative state officials who are threatening to sue the federal government next week if he doesn’t end a 2012 program that enables so-called Dreamers — young ...

When India’s prime minister announced last November that 86% of India’s currency would be worthless in hours, he presented the decree as a well-thought-out measure to attack cash “hoarded by anti-national and anti-social elements”. We were led to believe that honest taxpayers would line up to return their high-value currency notes, but these “anti-national and anti-social elements” would be unable ...

Just when the world thought China was retreating — pushing acquisitive private companies to relinquish their global shopping sprees — it looks like Beijing might be getting out its check book again. China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. will build a $5.8 billion hydroelectric power station in eastern Nigeria, with 85 percent of the funding to come from Beijing’s Export-Import Bank, ...

Here’s a story about the US economy that more people are telling these days. Since the 1980s, antitrust enforcement has gotten weaker. As a result, a few big companies have managed to capture a much bigger share of the market in various industries. Technology may have helped too, by letting big companies spread their geographic reach, and by creating network ...

A week ago I expressed the hope that President Donald Trump’s lamentable performance after the Charlottesville protests would hurt his standing in the polls. This didn’t happen. If there was a blip, it was in the other direction. I’d be pleased if Trump’s regrettable decision to pardon former sheriff Joe Arpaio dented his popularity, too, but I’m not holding my ...

William Cline is going against the grain. Cline, a well-known economist, isn’t convinced that the stock market is wildly overvalued. That’s an increasingly lonely view. “Warning Signs Mount as Stocks Stumble,” The Wall Street Journal headlined earlier this week. “Investors are running out of reasons to keep buying US stocks, exposing a growing number of warning signs,” the Journal wrote. ...