Opinion

In January 1988, in Ronald Reagan’s final State of the Union address, he noisily dropped on a table next to the podium in the House chamber three recent continuing resolutions, each more than a thousand pages long. Each was evidence of Congress’ disregard of the 1974 Budget Act. Reagan fumed: “…budget deadlines delayed or missed completely, monstrous continuing resolutions that ...

When Moody’s Investors Service polled market participants in Hong Kong recently, 70% picked India’s banking system as the most vulnerable among seven countries in South and Southeast Asia. I wonder what remaining 30% were smoking. As another earnings season rolls on, the weaknesses of Indian lenders are once again obvious. What’s not as apparent, though, is an quadrifurcation of Indian ...

Greece returned to the private debt market this week for the first time in years, raising 3 billion euros at a relatively affordable interest rate of 4.6 percent. That’s encouraging news — but it doesn’t mean the euro zone’s most flattened economy is on course for sustained growth. The economy is showing signs of life, growing a bit in the ...

Like the rage of Achilles, Donald Trump’s tweets are sudden, explosive and freighted with tragedy. Yesterday brought the most foreboding yet. “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……” And then: nothing. For a full nine minutes, the world was left to ponder what those ominous six ...

By any measure, the April 2016 decision by Uber Technologies Inc. to sell its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing was a defeat. The brief but spectacular battle between the two ride-hailing behemoths had cost Uber at least $2 billion and earned it little more than the enmity of the Chinese government. The only silver lining seemed to be that ...

Imax China Holding Inc. has a bigger challenge than a Chinese box office in the doldrums. Barring a surprise hit or two, the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Imax Corp. needs a strategy overhaul to win fans. The giant-screen operator posted a 6.3 percent drop in first-half revenue to $51.6 million, sending profit down 7.1 percent to $16.5 million. That drove ...

For all the talk of America’s decline and China’s rise, Asians still seem obsessed with events in one corner of Washington, D.C.: the Federal Reserve. This week’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee was the first I’d observed from Asia in 15 years. During that period, China’s economy has grown from about the size of Italy’s to surpass Germany ...

What did the CIA’s covert assistance program for Syrian rebels accomplish? Bizarrely, the biggest consequence may be that it helped trigger the Russian military intervention in 2015 that rescued President Bashar Al Assad – achieving the opposite of what the program intended. Syria adds another chapter to the star-crossed history of CIA paramilitary action. These efforts begin with the worthy ...

An announcement by two of Asia’s most important Internet firms could be instrumental in propelling the take-up of mobile payments in India. It may also help turn around an ailing company. AGTech Holdings Ltd will form a joint venture with India’s Paytm group to develop mobile games and other entertainment products, the Hong Kong-based company said in an exchange filing. ...

Polish President Andrzej Duda just surprised almost everybody by vetoing parts of new government legislation that assaults judicial independence. “As president, I don’t feel this law would strengthen a sense of justice,” he said. He’s right. Poland’s democratic institutions are under threat, and the new initiative is only the latest of many. The government should weigh this embarrassment carefully, and ...