Opinion

Mixed reaction over Nangarhar bombing

  At least 94 IS fighters were killed in Afghanistan by “the mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the US military. The US strike using the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, on a tunnel complex in remote eastern Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border killed four IS group leaders too. The ...

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Statistical significance is an overrated concept

  Ronald A. Fisher, one of the fathers of modern statistics, reportedly got on the nerves of many of his contemporaries. But if there’s a reason we should be annoyed with Fisher today, it’s for coining the misleading term “statistical significance.” Those two words don’t necessarily mean that a finding is important or that an effect is big. It only ...

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Toshiba’s slide into obscurity should worry shareholders

  In a country where government bailouts are common and with an alluring semiconductor unit that could net billions, Toshiba Corp. will probably stay in business even as it reels from record losses and the bankruptcy of its Westinghouse Electric nuclear energy unit. But a more pressing worry for investors is that with negative shareholder equity of 225.7 billion yen ...

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Why United won’t lose altitude in China!

  By mid-afternoon on April 10, Chinese online anger at United Airlines was running so hot that the hashtag #UnitedForcesPassengerOffPlane was receiving 20 million views per hour on the Sina Weibo social network. Such fury is more typically reserved for geopolitical spats with the likes of Japan and South Korea. It’s little wonder that the outrage earned the attention of ...

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How middle-class US got fleeced of its wealth

  If you’re a middle-class American baby boomer or Gen Xer, you might have spent much of the past decade wondering what went wrong. If you’re a boomer, there’s a good chance you’re still working well after you thought you’d retire: And if you’re part of Generation X, you’re probably less wealthy than your parents were at the same age. ...

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US president’s H-1B visa curbs might push Indian tech sector

  “Putting American Workers First,” reads the bold headline on the home page of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, proclaiming: “New Measures to Detect H-1B Visa Fraud and Abuse.” A click through to the April 3 statement outlines steps the agency will take to clamp down on the use of temporary visas for foreign workers in specialty occupations. Among ...

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Stop pretending on Greek debt issue

  Greece and its creditors say they’ve made progress in their endless negotiations over the country’s debts — enough to avoid a default on payments worth more than 7 billion euros in July. That’s good, but it was the easy part. The definitive settlement that Greece and the European Union both need still isn’t in sight. For the past seven ...

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Donald Trump’s policy volte face

  His critics called him a political novice, blasted his unorthodox presidential campaign and wrote him off for US presidency. Still Trump became 45th president of United States defying all odds. But one thing his detractors failed to understand was Trump’s ability to make about-face on promises and policies related to both domestic and international issues if the situation demands. ...

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Currency manipulation has another meaning for traders

  Politicians like to throw around the phrase “currency manipulation” when they feel that some other nation has developed an unfair trade advantage by way of an artificially weak exchange rate. In the currency markets, though, it has a more benign meaning and can help explain some of the seemingly head-scratching moves of late such as the dollar’s weakness. That’s ...

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Wal-Mart offers cheap when people want easy

  Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Wednesday unveiled a new discount program to entice customers to pick up online orders from its stores. The idea is: If it’s cheaper for Walmart to get stuff to its 5,000 stores, rather than millions of individual households, than why not pass along part of that discount? It has the extra benefit of getting customers ...

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