Opinion

  President Donald Trump seems determined to start a fight with China over trade. He’s appointed notable China skeptics to his economic team, badgered companies like Apple Inc. to stop making products on the mainland, and threatened tariffs of 45 percent on Chinese goods. He hopes to get companies to move their manufacturing operations back home and create jobs in ...

  Israel’s parliament passed a bill to retroactively legalise thousands of West Bank settler homes built on privately-owned Palestinian land. The move has triggered international outrage and will lead to setting up a court fight where the politically charged law may be overturned. The European Union postponed a February 28 meeting with Israel meant to signify improved relations and Jordan, ...

  Each year I perform the exercise of picking what I think is the most underrated (and overrated) economy in the world. Past winners have included Germany, Mexico and, more recently, the Philippines. The designation is tricky, because it can go to an ailing country with an excessively bad reputation or maybe to a known star with virtues beyond what ...

  The going-concern issue is becoming a problem in Singapore. Ezra Holdings Ltd., an oil-services company, was the latest to indicate it faces debt hurdles that require a restructuring. Under Singapore law, as in the US, that could mean a stay on interest payments until creditors and shareholders agree on a balance sheet that allows the company to keep operating ...

  Social scientists have always been fascinated by crowds. From guessing the weight of a cow to identifying which company built the faulty part in the space shuttle Challenger disaster, the many have often been able to outguess the expert few. Crowd wisdom is often cited as the justification for the idea of efficient asset markets — many investors, each ...

  With an asperity born of exasperation, Justice Antonin Scalia once wrote, “If you want aspirations, you can read the Declaration of Independence,” but “there is no such philosophizing in our Constitution,” which is “a practical and pragmatic charter of government.” Scalia was wrong, and much depends on Neil Gorsuch not resembling Scalia in this regard. Gorsuch can endorse Scalia’s ...

  The going-concern issue is becoming a problem in Singapore. Ezra Holdings Ltd., an oil-services company, was the latest to indicate it faces debt hurdles that require a restructuring. Under Singapore law, as in the US, that could mean a stay on interest payments until creditors and shareholders agree on a balance sheet that allows the company to keep operating ...

  Marine Le Pen could be France’s next president. Sure, her lead in some polls exaggerates her strength before the field narrows to two candidates — but voters’ discontent with normal politics isn’t subsiding. Failing to take the anti-immigrant, populist insurgent seriously would be a huge mistake. For France’s sake, and Europe’s, Le Pen must be defeated. Her party’s blend ...

  Trump administration is pulling out all the stops in its efforts to get the US President’s ban on travellers from seven majority-Muslim countries and on all refugees reinstated. On Sunday, a federal appeals court denied the Justice Department’s request for an immediate reinstatement of Trump’s ban. The detention of dozens and the return of others to their departure points ...

  The right-wing, nationalist resurgence in Europe is now a cliche. It is, however, not inconceivable that a successful backlash is developing in some countries before the nationalists had a chance to take over. It’s too early to draw any conclusions, but in the European Union’s two biggest economies — Germany and France (the UK should no longer count) — ...