Opinion

  Indiana’s Thomas R. Marshall, who was America’s vice president 100 years ago, voiced — he plucked it from a Hoosier humorist — one of the few long-remembered utterances to issue from that office: ‘What this country needs is a good 5-cent cigar,’ which would be $1.11 in today’s currency. A century later, what the country needs is a $12 ...

  In Asia, Western banks need to understand that small is beautiful. They need to be more nimble and focused, and accept that some things are best left to the locals. They should also focus on what pays: The multinational clients that were once their top customers and the private-equity firms that provide recurring fees are a lot more loyal ...

  Is there a way to measure a country’s overall success? Gross domestic product indicates how well the economy is working. Labor-force participation rates and median wages say something about how workers are faring. Newer measures of happiness, pride and other intangibles may fill in some soft details. There is one metric, however, that speaks volumes about how well any ...

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unprecedented cash clampdown was initially hailed as a surgical strike against black money menace. But now it seems to be an ill-conceived economic harakiri. One month after Modi government banned the two largest bank notes, people are still struggling to get their hands on the new currency. India is largely a cash –based economy. The ...

  The European Union after Brexit is not going to be an indulgent place. The remaining members of the bloc will do what they can to defuse political issues that worked in favour of Brexit, and killing so-called benefit tourism is one of the top items on the agenda. Benefit tourism — citizens of poorer EU countries moving to the ...

  As if the distress caused by India’s cash ban wasn’t enough, somebody started a rumour that Axis Bank Ltd., the country’s third-largest private sector lender by assets, would have its license revoked. Axis had to issue a statement to quell the speculation. But while this may have been a brief panic, the message to investors and analysts is clear: ...

  Jean Pierre Mustier has a mandate to change UniCredit SpA and is wasting none of it. Five months after taking the reins of the Italian lender, the CEO unveiled a mammoth capital raising and a new business plan on Tuesday. The hope is that this covers the cost of UniCredit’s past mistakes. It doesn’t yet provide a sustainable business ...

  Stress, I’ve long suspected, may explain why lifespans have been lengthening for high-income Americans but have remained the same or even shortened for low-income and middle-income people. A new analysis from the Hamilton Project released today adds important evidence: Biomarkers of stress have risen much more rapidly for low-income people than for high-income ones. The most recent national data ...

  Given the turf wars and interagency rivalries that have long surrounded US special operations forces, President Obama probably didn’t do the commandoes any favor when he delivered his last big military speech at the base in Tampa where they’re headquartered. Obama’s recent visit to MacDill Air Force Base, home of US Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, was in many ...

  Donald Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on visas for skilled foreign technology workers has a cheerleader in China. Robin Li, the head of Baidu, recently told a conference that he hopes talented workers who are no longer welcome in the US will “migrate to China and help China play a more important role on the stage of global ...