Opinion

  Don’t leap to conclusions about JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s decision to upgrade its assessment of Indonesia’s stock market. The New York-based bank has elevated internal compliance to nuisance levels in Asia since a scandal over its hiring practices in China broke three years ago, people who work at JPMorgan tell me. In such an environment, the Indonesia rating change ...

  Last week, China announced that it had mastered the art of making ballpoint pens. Don’t laugh: It was a years-long effort that cost millions of dollars and required the leadership of a state-run corporate colossus. It was front-page news, widely discussed on talk shows and celebrated on social media. And it was no one-off stunt. China hopes such government-mandated ...

  Economists are going to have to approach things a bit differently if they want to stay relevant in the Trump age. Political economy research is going to become more important. Some humility wouldn’t hurt. And they should look someplace other than the federal government to test their ideas. This is what I took away from this past weekend’s American ...

  The sun’s energy is free, but the capital required to harness it must earn a fair return. Try telling that to the gung-ho bidders for India’s utility-scale solar power projects. Auction prices will fall below 4 rupees (6 U.S. cents) per kilowatt-hour this year, Bloomberg News reports. The record low 2016 bid was 4.34 rupees. A 60 percent drop ...

  There is no federal law against mentally unstable adults possessing a firearm in the US Psychotic episodes, recurring delusions, illnesses such as paranoid schizophrenia or dementia: None of these disqualify Americans from buying or owning guns. Only someone who has been officially declared “mentally defective,” or who has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution, is prohibited. That helps ...

  More than 75 countries and international organisations gathered in Paris to discuss the ways for a long-lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis. It was the last significant gathering before Obama exits White House. The attendees at the international meet see the creation of the Palestinian state as the only acceptable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The meet manifests the ...

  What would it take to convince American drivers to buy a Chinese-branded car? China’s automakers have tried and failed to answer that question for at least a decade. Now another one wants to try: This week, on the eve of the Detroit Auto Show, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. (GAC) announced that it will begin exporting cars and sport-utility vehicles to ...

  Attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week could play around with a dizzying array of unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones that take selfies. Drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras to see at night. Drones that help fishermen chase their prey. No use is too niche as drone-makers chase a market that’s forecast to grow an average ...

  Next week, the nation’s retailers — and, more to the point, the people who want to sell things to the nation’s retailers — will gather at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the western edge of Manhattan for the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show.” On the advice of a reader of the column I wrote in early December ...

  “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” mutters Marcellus as ghosts and mad spirits haunt Elsinore Castle in the first act of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet.’ After this past week of salacious leaks about foreign espionage plots and indignant denials, people must be wondering if something is rotten in the state of our democracy. How can we dispel the dark ...