Opinion

  The US Federal Reserve’s next policy-making meeting in mid-March will be one of the most consequential in recent memory, with inflation running at a 40-year high and Europe riven by armed conflict. Yet with several nominations stuck in the Senate, the central bank is troublingly under-prepared to rise to the occasion. It’s a weakness that legislators must urgently resolve. ...

Markets have a short memory. It’s hardly surprising that when the price of Brent crude jumps 39% over the course of a month, people take fright. Russia is being touted as one of the world’s biggest oil producers after the US these days. The position of its exports on global markets looks highly uncertain, since sanctions that were designed to ...

French customs officials impounding a Russian billionaire Igor Sechin’s superyacht on the Cote D’Azur made for sensational headlines, but it was just one of the moves against a string of oligarchs by the US, Europe and UK. It is easy to mistake these actions simply as punishment. But hitting individual Russian billionaires with sanctions isn’t some mindless act of revenge ...

  Americans are understandably grumpy about 2022 amid buffeting by surging inflation, supply-chain disruptions, labor shortages and Covid-19. They might or might not feel relieved to learn that the country’s business leaders are more upbeat than ever. The Business Roundtable, the lobby of about 200 chief executives of major US companies, said its quarterly Economic Outlook Index reached an all-time ...

  Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine — cutting off his own nation of nearly 150 million and torpedoing its economy in pursuit of a delusion — marks the start of a final act for Russia’s president. Not yet the end. Swept up by the charm of Ukraine’s comedian-turned-president, the bravery of the country’s defenders and the blunders of Russia’s ...

  As the world grapples with crafting an effective response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal and immoral invasion of democratic neighbour Ukraine, three key approaches have emerged. The first is the imposition of crippling sanctions, which over time will strangle the Russian economy. The second is military support to the Ukrainians and a promise to help train, organize and ...

Hong Kong feels like it’s on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and it’s tempting to ask how much more people can take. With reports circulating that authorities will impose some form of lockdown later this month, supermarket shelves are once again being stripped bare and long lines have formed outside pharmacies. More than two years after the start of ...

  A debate is intensifying about the role of corporate America in the recent wave of higher inflation. Companies are undoubtedly raising prices. The question is whether they are exploiting a surge in consumer demand or merely passing on their own higher costs. The available data strongly suggests that companies are raising prices to enhance profits. The view of price ...

  Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine will have momentous consequences for many — above all for Ukrainians, those who are fleeing the country and those who have stayed to fight off the invading army or to helplessly endure the devastation. But the effect on Russians, too, will be enormous, whether or not we realise it now. It’s time for we ...

If the “no limits” partnership announced between China and Russia on the eve of the Winter Olympics amounted to a blueprint for a new world order, it’s already looking a little frayed around the edges. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left Beijing struggling to straddle a line between its cardinal foreign-policy principle of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and ...