Opinion

Donald Trump may not like it, but he can’t—so far— reverse two of Barack Obama’s signature accomplishments: the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Iran nuclear deal. In one emblematic, frustrating day, Trump both saw the failure of the Senate Bill to repeal and replace the ACA and was forced by his advisers to certify that Iran is in compliance …

As local-currency bonds in Indonesia joined the recent global debt selloff, Aberdeen Asset Management Plc and Western Asset Management Co. had a simple strategy: buy more. The money managers see the nation’s securities, along with India’s, as the best bets to weather any selloff in emerging Asia as the European Central Bank prepares to join the Federal Reserve in paring …

On the 48th anniversary of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon, an Illinois attorney hopes to pocket as much as $4 million at a Sotheby’s auction of a bag that Apollo 11 astronauts filled with rocks. The bag’s history is as interesting as its travels: the US government accidentally sold it in 2015, then fought the buyer, Nancy Lee …

House Republicans, who are now deliberating the government’s 2018 budget, pledge to eliminate deficits within a decade. Well, good luck with that. It must be obvious that chronic deficits reflect a basic political impasse that can be broken only if majorities in Congress do things they’ve refused to do: trim Social Security benefits; raise taxes significantly; control health spending. There …

Don’t be surprised if in 20 years, Singapore’s wealth-management industry starts resembling a mini-United Nations, with bankers wearing their nationalities on their sleeves. Last week, Gadfly commented on one such act of flag-waving. PT Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest lender by assets, plans to set up a private banking outfit in the city-state to target offshore Indonesian wealth. While that proposal …

Donald Trump’s vision of a Justice Department that serves Donald Trump instead of the cause of justice is horribly askew. But it is quintessentially Trumpian, and therefore unsurprising. Attorney General Jeff Sessions should know better. After the president questioned his judgment and competence in an interview with The New York Times — and said Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from …

President Donald Trump has made a welcome retreat from his threats to scrap ‘the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere.’ His administration’s plan for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, released this week, is surprisingly benign. Granted, the administration’s declared purpose for those talks — to reduce the US trade deficit — highlights its weak grasp of basic …

India is solidifying its position as the fastest-growing economy among the Group of 20 nations, surpassing China since 2015 with a boost from a financial industry that is winning the confidence of global investors. Financial markets can improve living standards by channelling savings, allocating credit and reducing the cost of producing and trading goods and services. In India, the financial …

On a recent trip to Shenzhen, in southern China, I came across a subway busker with two tip jars. The first was a cardboard box filled with coins and bills; the second was a small QR code taped to the box that allowed passersby to leave a tip by smartphone. On one level, this was simply smart business: Chinese made …

So far, Martin Schulz, the Social Democrat candidate for the German chancellorship, has failed to dent the formidable poll lead of Angela Merkel’s conservatives. But his latest attempt to prove that he can be a better leader for Germany is about more than politics: It touches on the country’s biggest non-problem — its allegedly crumbling infrastructure. Few English-language news outlets …