Opinion

  India’s note ban saga continues. And so the common man’s sufferings. Indian Prime Narendra Modi’s shock note ban sparked cash chaos. And it is only obvious in a country where 90% transactions are done in cash. Modi said that the suffering of his compatriot is for the better cause. He asked citizens to give him 50 days to make ...

  At a recent forum, China’s Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao warned that a ‘zero-sum’ mentality in economic relations between the US and China hurts both countries. He’s right: Rising protectionism, of the kind favored by President-elect Donald Trump, is a danger to the still-sputtering global economy. What China doesn’t yet accept is that much of the ire against free ...

  The UK government is no longer the largest shareholder of Lloyds Banking Group Plc, the recipient of a 20 billion-pound ($24 billion) bailout at the height of the financial crisis. That’s good news for the British taxpayer, which wants its money back, and for the bank, which wants independence. But it’s only an incremental step in a very long ...

  Lots of economic policy debates end up going like this: First, one economist or policy wonk will propose a government intervention — a minimum wage increase, a tax on sugar or subsidies for solar electricity. Another person, usually someone of a more free-market bent, will demand to know exactly which market failure justifies the intervention. A market failure, in ...

  Watching Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, a gruff, 50-year veteran of the spy world, answer congressional questions on Thursday, you couldn’t help wondering if perhaps this time Donald Trump has met his match. To recall a quip made years ago by a prominent Washington lawyer, Clapper is not a “potted plant.” He has served Republicans and Democrats alike ...

  Wall Street is split on the value of having a Chinese joint venture. Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG are planning to raise their stakes in their securities operations in the country to the maximum 49 percent allowed, just weeks after JP Morgan Chase & Co. severed ties with its local partner amid frustration over a lack of control. ...

  People who want less immigration have been underrepresented in the U.S. Congress. Gallup found that 38 percent of Americans fall into this category, while 21 percent want increased immigration. But in 2013, a Senate committee voted 17-1 against capping legal immigration at 33 million people over the next decade. The one senator who voted for a cap — the ...

  The British people chose to vote in June 2016 to disentangle their country from the EU. They did not simply vote to withdraw from the European Union but to change the way their country works. But even after more than six months of that historic referendum, people are not sure about what the future holds for them. The most ...

  The Internet of Things is one of the gadget industry’s brightest hopes in a world that’s saturated with smartphones. Sensors are cheap, and digital giants such as Amazon and Google are aggressively pushing their voice-command technology. The resulting hype, however, spawns inventions that should only exist in the corny worlds of science fiction. At this point, the IoT market ...

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average came tantalizing close to 20,000 on January 6, a record level that is being closely watched (and hyped) by the financial media. At one point during the trading session, it was within 0.37 points, or 0.0002 percent. Most agree that it is just a matter of time before this milestone is attained. The longer-term ...