Opinion

In a fresh sign of confidence about the euro zone’s recovery, the European Commission has just upgraded its growth forecasts for the bloc. This raises a question: Should governments now start tightening fiscal policy to put their public finances on a sounder footing? It depends. Many euro-zone countries have worryingly high levels of public debt, and the best time to ...

Many remarkable things happened in this year’s French presidential election. Emmanuel Macron became the youngest president of France. The extremist party garnered highest-ever scores. And for the first time, none of France’s traditional parties were represented in the final vote. Despite these extraordinary developments, the 39-year-old president’s future in office is full of challenges. He has daunting tasks ahead. Macron ...

When discussing countries that have undergone astonishing economic transformations — as, most notably, China has over the past few decades — observers usually credit success to industrialization. After all, that’s the visible consequence of rapid growth: Where sleepy fishing villages once lay, ports and factories and high-speed rail networks spring up. The people who lived in those villages are in ...

Sour grapes. That’s a two-word description for the Singapore sovereign fund’s decision to slash its shareholding in UBS Group AG at a loss after nursing the investment for nearly a decade. But is the sale also a flashing neon ‘buyer beware’ sign for HNA Group Co., the Chinese aviation-to-hotels conglomerate that recently boosted its stake in another European lender, Deutsche ...

The never-ending race to stay ahead of the terrorists and their obsession with aviation has turned to laptops and other electronic devices. First it was shoes, after a failed attempt to blow up a jetliner in 2001 with explosives-laden black hightops. Then liquids were banned in 2006 following the discovery of a U.K.-based plot. The nearly successful detonation of a ...

Economics pundits like me spend a good deal of time worrying about productivity. When discussing the issue, we often begin by noting that in the long run, productivity increases are the only way that living standards can improve. We recount the history of technological breakthroughs like the internal-combustion engine and the invention of electricity that supercharged productivity. And we wring ...

An Israeli Cabinet minister is proposing that they all share a railway link that could cut overland travel distances between the Mediterranean and key Arab destinations by a half or two-thirds. The Regional Landbridge & Hub Initiative has been developed by Yisrael Katz, Israel’s minister of transportation and intelligence and a potential rival to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for leadership ...

The mini-deal on U.S. trade with China announced by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last week deserves a cautious welcome. It’s narrow in scope, and the reasoning behind it, as related by Ross, is questionable at best, but it gets the main thing right: It expands rather than contracts the opportunities for mutually beneficial commerce. One can only hope that the ...

How many more atrocities committed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on its own people will go unpunished? What will it take for Syria’s allies to say ‘enough is enough’ and international community to act decisively against the brutality of Assad regime? Syrian president has carried out worst atrocities — widespread kidnappings, torture, barrel-bombings and chemical weapons attacks — unleashed against ...

The smoother the road, the faster people are likely to drive. The faster they drive, the more excited they are about getting to their destination in good, if not record time; but, also, the greater the risk of an accident that could also harm other drivers, including those driving slower and more carefully. That is an appropriate analogy for the ...