Opinion

After China, it’s Hong Kong’s turn to take Moody’s Investors Service to task. The city’s financial secretary wrote a blog post on Sunday to express his displeasure with the recent one-notch cut in Hong Kong’s sovereign rating to Aa2. More than the downgrade, what seems to have really irked Paul Chan are the 16 references to “links” and “linkages;” four ...

The gory details of the Congressional Budget Office’s report on the House legislation to “repeal and replace” Obamacare are, in many ways, superfluous. The bill’s flaws, substantive and otherwise, have long been evident. Less clearly understood, though equally disturbing, is the larger political context. That’s not to say the particulars of the CBO report, released Wednesday, are irrelevant: far from ...

Three years after he was elected, Prime Minister Narendra Modi looms over India’s political scene like no other leader in the country’s recent history. And his critics must explain why his mass appeal seems unimpaired, despite his increasingly authoritarian ways and growing failures. Modi is far from realizing his promises of economic and military security. Pakistan-backed militants continue to strike ...

Universal basic income (UBI) schemes are often rejected out of hand as too expensive. In some countries, however, paying every resident a basic income sufficient for survival could actually result in budget savings. That’s the surprising conclusion in a fresh policy brief from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD decided to contribute to the basic income ...

Almost a decade after a crisis that nearly brought down the global financial system, markets still aren’t showing much confidence in banks. It’s a troubling phenomenon that U.S. and European leaders ignore at their peril. It’s understandable that, after years of wrangling and thousands of pages of new rules, regulators might want to consider their mission accomplished. They have changed ...

Robert Lighthizer’s nomination as U.S. trade representative made the steel industry happy. Both the Steel Manufacturers Association and the American Iron and Steel Institute put out statements lauding the choice, with the latter citing his “dedication” to the steel industry. U.S. Steel Corp has been Lighthizer’s most prominent client as a lawyer in recent years. Lighthizer’s confirmation earlier this month ...

The Manchester terror attack by an alleged IS ‘soldier’ will accelerate the push by the US and its allies to capture the terror group’s strongholds in Mosul and Raqqah. But it should also focus some urgent discussions about a post-IS strategy for stabilizing Iraq and Syria. For all President Trump’s bombast about obliterating the IS, the Raqqah campaign has been ...

India’s $103 billion Tata Group, the maker of Tetley Tea, went on an extended beverage break in October last year, when it acrimoniously fired its chairman. The ensuing battle for control was distracting, but ultimately proved to be a storm in a teacup. Now that the saga is over, Tata Sons Ltd, the group’s unlisted holding company, is going back ...

British police were justifiably furious when evidence from their investigation into the Manchester terrorist attack found its way into news reports. The leaks undermine the investigation and the confidence of victims and witnesses, whose cooperation is crucial. The immediate consequence is that Manchester police have stopped sharing information about their investigation with U.S. officials, who are widely believed to the ...

The U.S. signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal last year, then decided not to implement it. The 11 other signatories have given themselves until November to decide whether to go ahead anyway. They shouldn’t need half that long. The deal as it stands is far better than none. Contrary to warnings from some quarters, America’s absence needn’t kill the agreement. ...