Opinion

Noble Group destined to fail, Iceberg says, defying lawsuit

Noble Group Ltd. received a fresh broadside from Iceberg Research as the trader’s long-time foe predicted that the commodity company will probably fail, while telling executives that the anonymous commentator won’t be silenced by being sued. The trader’s shares fell. “Noble is sinking in a perfect storm,” the researcher said in a report on Thursday. “The company is walking towards ...

Read More »

British voters are still worrying about Brexit

The best thing to do with mistakes is learn from them. So as part of her vacation reading, UK Prime Minister Theresa May might want to glance at the just-released British Election Study showing what was foremost on voters’ minds as they cast ballots in the 2017 general election: Brexit The election was supposed to be a walk in Hyde ...

Read More »

Was Scaramucci’s firing a win for political norms?

The short life of Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director will be remembered with joy by some, or at least by me. His unbridled self-expression, in the grandest traditions of the First Amendment and the New York street corner, was more like a tornado of fresh air than a mere breath. But the era of the Mooch was also ...

Read More »

It’s perhaps too late to check North Korean missile program

It may already be too late for sanctions to halt North Korea’s missile program. That’s the view of analysts who have watched Kim Jong Un accelerate progress on North Korea’s decades-long quest for a functioning intercontinental ballistic missile. Friday’s launch, the second in a matter of weeks, showed it’s just a matter of time before he has a full-fledged ICBM ...

Read More »

Bank of England should take its time on tightening

The Bank of England to decide whether to raise interest rates. The choice isn’t clear-cut, and the central bank’s policy makers appear to be divided—but with the economy showing signs of slowing and inflation under control, they’d be wise to wait a while longer before tightening. The Bank of England responded to the Brexit referendum by cutting its benchmark rate ...

Read More »

Two half-finished nuclear reactors up for sale in US

Looking to buy two half-finished nuclear reactors? It may be your lucky day. US utility owner Scana Corp. dropped a plan to build two reactors at the V.C. Summer power plant in South Carolina after the projected total costs exceeded $20 billion. The cancelation of the project is another blow to the much-hyped (and thus far non-existent) nuclear renaissance in ...

Read More »

OPEC is confronting a game-theory dilemma

Over the last few years, producers belonging to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have had mixed success at winning the price-setting “game” for oil. To stand a better chance of regaining durable control, they must do a much better job of working together, and, importantly, they need to do so in a much broader and more institutionalized manner. Otherwise, ...

Read More »

The real reason car sales are falling in US

It’s been a tough few months in Detroit. After seven years of gangbuster sales, the US auto market is skidding badly. The American car and truck segment is remarkably easy to get a handle on, but a look at some of its indicators may induce some head-scratching. For the past 20 years, the number of licensed drivers has ticked up ...

Read More »

Why Apple keeps investors waiting and waiting…

For more than a year, Apple investors have been looking ahead to what comes next. They’re still waiting, and the longer they wait the longer it takes to come to grips with Apple’s new, less-turbocharged reality. The company’s revenue rose a relatively pedestrian 7.2 percent in its third fiscal quarter compared with the awful quarter a year earlier, and Apple’s ...

Read More »

‘Loyalty to president’ versus sense of right and wrong

If President Trump ordered a senior government official to support the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller, how should that person respond? Adm. Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, answered my question about that onstage last week at the Aspen Security Forum. He began with the usual caveat that he wouldn’t answer a hypothetical, but then offered a ...

Read More »
Send this to a friend