Opinion

  President Donald Trump has released a budget plan for federal discretionary spending (which doesn’t include interest on the national debt or entitlement programs like Social Security). It has a few things to like, but it’s alarming for its deep cuts to U.S. government support of science and technology. Although Trump’s document is titled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to ...

    As an international tax-evasion probe ensnares Credit Suisse Group AG, the bank says it has a “zero-tolerance” policy that’s more than just talk. Its weekend charm offensive flagged cash invested in compliance and risk controls, as well as business sacrificed by weeding out irregular clients. But whatever happens in this case, it’s likely that the cost of transparency ...

  Last week’s bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric Co. is yet more evidence, if anyone needed any, that the economics of nuclear power are not good. Like coal, nuclear energy can’t compete against cheap natural gas and ever-cheaper renewables. Unlike coal, however, nuclear energy is a crucial tool in the fight against climate change. So the public subsidies that benefit the ...

  The dust-up over Gibraltar is a prelude to how bumpy the road to Brexit deal would be. The rocky 2.6 square mile enclave has been a British territory for the last three centuries. But Spain has long sought to regain control of Gibraltar, an area of 32,000 people on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Now Gibraltar, which ...

  US President Donald Trump has warned that discussions with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Florida this week will be “very difficult”, in large part because of disagreements over trade. But before Trump can shrink America’s lopsided trade deficits—with China or anyone else—he must first recognize what’s driving them. Unlike in the past, most deficits today have little to ...

  Iceland has provided a fascinating case study for economists. Now that it has impressively battled to restore economic and financial well-being, Finance Minister Benedikt Johannesson appears to be toying with a new experiment for the krona, the country’s currency. His thinking is being driven by the recent volatility of the exchange rate. But it also is informed by a ...

  Last week, Apple launched RED, a special-edition iPhone. An undisclosed portion of sales of the phone will support The Global Fund to Fight AIDS. But the product is strangely missing from the Chinese version of Apple’s website, which promotes a red phone but has no mention of the disease. Apple didn’t respond to my question about why that’s the ...

  Here’s a radical idea for reframing the health care debate on the ruins of the GOP’s half-baked plan: Let’s listen to doctors, rather than politicians. And let’s begin with a simple formula offered last week by the National Academy of Medicine: “Better health at lower cost.” Better and cheaper. It’s hard to argue with that prescription. Because the real ...

  After seeing investors in Singapore duped for years by misbehaving bosses, the city’s stock exchange is taking its fight for justice to mainland China, an exemplar of egregious corporate behavior in the post-Enron world. Singapore Exchange Ltd. said last week that its lawyers in the People’s Republic filed complaints with the authorities against Wu Xinhua, executive chairman and CEO ...

  With talks on Britain’s exit from the European Union finally about to begin, one procedural issue looms large: Do the negotiations on three big subjects — exit terms, transitional arrangements, and a future comprehensive agreement on a UK-EU partnership — move in parallel or in entirely separate stages? Disagreement over this seemingly minor detail could sink the whole effort. ...