Statements by two leaders in opposite hemispheres could help explain an announcement Tuesday that Infosys Ltd., the Indian outsourcing giant, will hire 10,000 American workers over the next two years. We believe jobs should be offered to American workers firstand. This will be the last year when we can be ahead of the curve in technology … Two years ...
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Turning the page on Trump’s first 100 days
Finally, thankfully, the first 100 days of the Trump presidency have passed. This meaningless standard for judging a president can now fade into oblivion, where it belongs, and where it will remain for at least another four years. Maybe the passage of the 100-day mark will allow both the president and those who write about him (which includes, of ...
Read More »Venezuela heading for Cuba-style regime
In the latest attempt to strengthen his grip on power, the beleaguered Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered for writing a new constitution. The socialist leader’s call for a constitutional assembly has further angered his opponents whose relentless campaign to oust him has brought hundreds of thousands into the streets demanding his removal. The move comes two days after ...
Read More »Modi’s misguided economics will catch up with him
It’s been almost three years since Narendra Modi took over as prime minister of India—but, in many ways, it feels longer. Modi’s domination of Indian politics, and of Indians’ imagination, is complete; no alternative seems possible, every challenger has been defeated. But bad economics has a habit of catching up with its practitioners eventually. And for all his political ...
Read More »Singapore Air axes its safety net
Singapore Airlines Ltd. likes to project a certain consistency. Its female flight attendants wear a uniform that hasn’t significantly changed since the airline’s founding. The shares have traded for several years at an almost fixed price of S$10 apiece. And its board hardly ever takes on a cent of net debt. That’s about to change, Abhishek Vishnoi of Bloomberg ...
Read More »Start worrying about emerging markets
For all the hand-wringing over when and how the Federal Reserve would begin tapering its massive bond-buying program, emerging nations appear to be relatively well-prepared for higher U.S. interest rates. Compared with the period before the 1997 financial crisis, many of them have ably shored up their defenses — freeing exchange rates, amassing foreign-exchange reserves and paring back their ...
Read More »Losses lurk in Donald Trump’s tax plan
Donald Trump’s tax plan, if adopted, has been seen as an unmitigated windfall for corporate America. Cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from its current effective rate of around 28 percent could generate nearly $2 trillion in additional income for the companies in the S&P 500 index alone over a decade. But a surprising number of companies ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank is all dressed up with nowhere to grow
Germany’s No. 1 lender is leaner, more profitable and more financially robust than a year ago. That’s good news for shareholders who have suffered through two years of losses, and taxpayers nervous about the health of the country’s banking system. The bad news is that revenue is still underwhelming. Despite a blowout quarter for most of Wall Street’s debt-trading ...
Read More »Anti-immigrant propaganda won’t stop crime in US
In a series of identical and unsurprising letters, the U.S. Justice Department has told local officials to be sure to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration issues. The federal government should expect nothing less. What accompanied the letters, however, was more disturbing. The letters, signed by acting assistant attorney general Alan Hanson, were sent last week to “alert” various ...
Read More »No smooth sailing for May in Brexit talks
The European Union set the scene for UK divorce process as the leaders of bloc’s remaining 27 countries unanimously signed off on their negotiating guidelines for the Brexit talks. It formally opens the way for discussions that will culminate with the UK leaving the bloc in March 2019 with or without a deal. Although the talks on the terms ...
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