Opinion

Imagine that tomorrow, some smart kid invented a technology that let people or physical goods pass through walls, and posted instructions for how to build it cheaply from common household materials. How would the world change? Lots of industries would probably become more productive. Being able to walk through walls instead of being forced to use doors would make it …

Theresa May’s goal at this point in the Brexit negotiations was to be a strong British prime minister —between European Union leaders. It hasn’t quite worked out that way. Instead, as Brexit Secretary David Davis heads to Brussels for the second round of negotiations, EU officials and politicians are looking at a Britain where senior ministers openly disagree about their …

Shareholders of Tencent Holdings Ltd., the world’s biggest video game company, panicked last week. People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, singled out ‘Honour of Kings,’ Tencent’s biggest game, for an unusually high-profile criticism. ‘Poison,’ the paper declared of a game played by roughly one in seven Chinese. “Constantly spreading ‘negative energy.’” It linked the game to …

I am giving you permission: You can safely ignore Amazon’s Prime Day, the annual fake shopping holiday Jeff Bezos invented two years ago.The European Central Bank is unnerving markets by remaining vague over the future of its bond-buying scheme. Yet, if investors listened carefully, they would detect an emerging framework for understanding what guides policy makers. The first principle is …

Predictably and sensibly, a three-judge panel of the nation’s second-most important court, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, recently dismissed, unanimously, a lawsuit brought by a Yemeni man, two of whose relatives were collateral fatalities in a 2012 US drone attack that killed three terrorists. The suit asked the court to declare the attacks illegal under several …

Traders in India are so convinced that slowing inflation will lead to a rate cut that the central bank’s increasing intervention in the bond market isn’t bothering them. Benchmark 10-year yields, which fell to a two-week low on Wednesday, will probably continue their decline after data showed consumer-price gains slowed to a record low, according to Kotak Mahindra Asset Management …

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s prepared testimony for her semi-annual report to Congress made clear that central bankers are struggling to understand the recent downward trend in inflation. Still, it is important to remember that the path of monetary policy depends not just on inflation, but also on unemployment. Yellen knows this, and it would be a mistake to interpret …

The conviction of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on corruption charges shows how far justice has come in Brazil. Yet Brazil’s next and stiffer test is in ensuring that allegations about current President Michel Temer receive a full and transparent investigation, and that the execution of justice is not reduced to back-room politics. Brazil’s future — the future …

The New York Times ran an article over the weekend about efforts by utility companies to fight the spread of rooftop-solar power: Rooftop solar panel growth has come to a shuddering stop this year, with a projected decline in new installations of 2 percent. Since 2013, Hawaii, Nevada, Arizona, Maine and Indiana have decided to phase out programs that spurred …

It’s easy to poke fun at Britain’s government dysfunction. But there’s at least one policy area where it’s having a sophisticated debate with global implications: how to regulate ‘gig economy’ companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. and Deliveroo so they don’t exploit workers or skimp on taxes. Working out new rules for companies that use smartphones to connect buyers and …