Opinion

  Economists who lean toward the free-market side of the ideological spectrum often say that tax cuts help the US economy by encouraging people to work more. Greg Mankiw, a Harvard economist who earns a very high income from his famous textbooks, has repeatedly claimed that higher taxes will discourage him from working more. The supposed mechanism is simple — ...

  Private-equity investors aren’t like you or me. Should there be any doubt, take a look at footwear retailer Belle International Holdings Ltd., which despite a 21 percent share price gain this year has the dubious distinction of being the worst-performing stock on the Hang Seng Index since it joined the benchmark in 2010. Bad Footing Since it joined Hong ...

  Amazon.com Inc. doesn’t need any help, but here is some unsolicited advice anyway. The company needs and wants to expand its Prime membership outside the US, and the craftiest tactic to build its shopping club is to throw in free home internet or mobile phone service in Europe. Sound wacky? Stick with us. Prime is essential to Jeff Bezos’s ...

  In oil, like life, the secret to happiness is to lower your expectations. That isn’t just a piece of homespun, nihilist wisdom. It’s what’s happening beneath the surface of the oil market. Hedging is how exploration and production companies manage their market risk. Locking in a price for future output — by, for example, selling oil futures — provides ...

  Something strange is happening in China’s steel market. Hot-rolled coil, a type of spooled sheet metal used to make everything from automobiles to trains and toasters, now costs less than the rebar used in reinforced concrete. That’s a rare event, and it’s still rarer for the divergence to be this wide. Flat products like hot-rolled coil are generally more ...

  What did Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer achieve in attempting to deny a vote on Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court? Not keeping Gorsuch off the court; he was approved on Friday. Not preserving the filibuster for use against any future Trump nominee; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell abolished the tactic on Thursday. Not ...

  Turkey voted in support of a historic referendum by 51.41 to 48.59 that will greatly expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office. Although Erdogan has won, there are question marks that are being raised. Opposition parties alleged fraud and the European Union branded it as unfair and said they would challenge the results. Top EU officials said ...

  For more than a century after the advent of commercial electrical power in the late 1800s, electricity use in the US rose and rose and rose. Sure, there were pauses during recessions, but the general trajectory was up. The initial drop in electricity use in 2008 and 2009 could be attributed partly to the economic downturn. But the economy ...

  It’s a highly choreographed event in which the future leaders of a secretive Chinese institution are announced to the world via a complex internal formula. No, not Beijing’s upcoming Communist Party congress, which traditionally appoints the new leadership — we’re talking about Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.’s succession plan. The appointment of Rupert Hogg to follow Ivan Chu as chief ...

  A recent report from the UK suggested that the country eliminate speed bumps from its roads to ease vehicle passage and limit carbon emissions. This has since given rise to heated debate. In the US, homeowners often push for more speed bumps in their neighborhoods to slow drivers, making local routes for deliveries more cumbersome each year. But — ...