Opinion

  The stock market of the late 1990s is remembered mostly for high-flying dotcom equities that eventually crashed back to earth. Yet, from a money flows standpoint, the bigger imbalance of that era was that large-cap stocks fetched very high valuations relative to small cap stocks. This market opportunity was exploited by hedge funds, leading to a decade of outperformance ...

  Don’t expect a second War on Poverty, regardless of who wins the US election. Picking up where Lyndon Johnson left off in the 1960s would seem a logical response to the campaign’s relentless criticism of economic inequality. But appearances are deceiving. Most proposals to reduce inequality — conspicuously from Hillary Clinton — are aimed at the middle class. Spillovers ...

  One of the surprises of the 2008 global financial crisis is that the “great recession” that followed did not trigger much of a protectionist backlash. Developments this week suggest that, in the absence of more enlightened and coordinated political leadership, this may be changing. As output collapsed after the financial system’s “sudden stop” in the fall of 2008, and ...

  Many things have gotten harder as the world settles into a protracted spell of low oil prices and sluggish growth — from avoiding deflation to creating jobs. One thing has gotten easier, as well as more urgent: eliminating fossil-fuel subsidies. Governments have long paid lip service to this idea. The G-20 has been promising to phase out fuel subsidies ...

Never before has a G20 summit faced such diverse and gruelling challenge as the September 4-5 Hangzhou meet encounters. Themed aptly as ‘Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy’, the world is eagerly awaiting the event, hoping it delivers something beyond just pledges — A strategy towards an effective global economic synergy. The meeting comes at a very ...

  Well before the Brazilian Senate threw Dilma Rousseff out of office on Wednesday, by a commanding 61 votes to 20, even her most fervent supporters sensed her days as head of state were numbered. Yet to judge by the commotion from her loyalist rearguard, you’d think a political comeback were underway. The suspended president took the stand at her ...

  Finland’s flirtation with an unconditional, universal basic income has entered a decisive stage: Draft legislation for a pilot project has been presented for public discussion, which will run until Sept. 9. It’s clear that what the Nordic nation wants to try is neither overly ambitious nor particularly useful. Paying every citizen of a country the same amount of money ...

  Everyone knows the story of IEX by now, but let’s tell it again anyway. Some investors were sad. They were sad because they wanted to buy some stock, and their computers told them that there were 5,000 shares of the stock available on different exchanges at a price of $20 each, but when they sent an order to buy ...

  By ordering Apple to pay 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes to Ireland, the European Union has created a somewhat farcical situation. Ireland doesn’t want the money, which amounts to more than four months’ tax revenue for the small nation, and the U.S., where the iPhone maker is headquartered, is on the tax-avoidant company’s side. European Competition ...

  One of the big debates in health care right now is whether to create a public option for health insurance. Most observers of Obamacare agree that the big problem is private insurers pulling out of health-care exchanges. That leaves smaller states with only one or two insurers participating, which kills competition in insurance markets and raises costs. Although there ...