Opinion

  People in the West, certainly Americans, have long had a fascination with the East, with many predicting an inevitable “Asian century” marked by economic and market dominance. I have long disagreed with the consensus on China and other Asian Tigers, and others are beginning to agree. Many problems stand in the way of the “Asian century.” Japan dazzled Westerners ...

  China is within striking distance of locking down its biggest-ever overseas acquisition, after China National Chemical Corp. won US and European Union antitrust approval for its $43 billion takeover of Swiss pesticide maker Syngenta AG. Just as well, because it may be the last big deal in a while. Although the transaction still needs the green light from regulators ...

  Like repentant smokers, Europe’s politicians have promised to quit bailing out banks. They’re finding the habit hard to break. The Italian government wants to rescue three banks which are struggling under the weight of non-performing loans. The trade-offs, as always, are complicated: financial stability now against financial stability later; shielding taxpayers from the costs of a rescue against protecting ...

  When people come up to me and declare that economists are charlatans, they usually mention how economists failed to predict the Great Recession. This is true. No mainstream macroeconomic model of the day managed to anticipate that the largest, longest economic downturn since the Great Depression was imminent, until it was already underway. Macroeconomists typically respond that forecasting isn’t ...

  Looking at the headlong growth in Australian house prices — up 19 percent from a year earlier in Sydney in March — it’s tempting to believe that the market is simply uncontrollable. In 2014, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), announced measures to restrict the increase in investment mortgages. For three quarters it seemed to be working, with loan ...

  On the eve of their first-ever meeting this week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has one great advantage over US President Donald Trump: He knows what he wants. By contrast, US policy towards China looks confused and contradictory. Until and unless this changes, not much progress will be made on critical issues in the most important bilateral relationship in the ...

  The Russian subway bombing, which killed 14 people, was the worst terrorist attack in a major Russian city in years. The suspected bomber has been identified as Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, 22, a Russian citizen born in Kyrgyzstan. It drew wide condemnation from Russia’s friends and foes. The UAE strongly condemned the terrorist bombings and expressed its full solidarity with Russia ...

  Turmoil continues for small currencies on Europe’s periphery: The Czech Republic finally may be about to drop the koruna’s peg to the euro, and Iceland is looking for a currency to use to value the krona. The agony of these decisions may give central bank governors an illusion of control, but currency pegs appear to be outliving their usefulness. ...

  The kind of company you work for makes a big difference to your chances of getting raises, new research has found. This adds to growing evidence that what goes on inside firms matters beyond their walls. Researchers have shown that company-level differences have become large enough to influence national productivity growth and overall wage inequality. The new study suggests ...

  One of the world’s largest reserves of low-grade, dirty coal is located roughly 250 miles west of Karachi, Pakistan in the Thar Desert. Discovered in the 1990s, it remained largely untapped until last year, when Chinese financing underwrote a $3.5 billion project to exploit it. The investment is part of a larger Chinese energy plan for Pakistan that includes ...