Opinion

Three recent bank rescues in Europe could form the backbone of a textbook on how to deal with large, failing banks — and how not to. These are the uncompromising bail-in of Banco Popular in Spain, the controversial rescue of Monte dei Paschi di Siena in Italy and the much-praised but in fact horribly botched nationalization of Ukraine’s largest bank, …

Seventy years ago on Monday, Secretary of State George Marshall delivered a Harvard commencement day address that became the framework for what we call the ‘Marshall Plan’ for European recovery. It’s a cruel anniversary this year, as we watch President Trump dismember the world order that Marshall and his colleagues helped build. Dean Acheson, one of Marshall’s colleagues and his …

With Donald Trump pulling the US out of the Paris climate accord, China and India will have to shoulder the burden of keeping a lid on global warming. But even if the two most-populous nations are willing to take up the mantle, their ability to pull it off is uncertain. India’s solar industry offers a case study. Thanks to a …

Credit where credit’s due: The sale for 1 euro of Banco Popular Espanol SA, a failing Spanish bank, to rival lender Banco Santander SA shows how the euro zone should handle such cases. The regulators acted swiftly and fairly. Global markets barely noticed. This is a model for future interventions. Banco Popular’s troubles date back to Spain’s real-estate crisis, which …

The prosecution of intelligence contractor Reality Leigh Winner under the Espionage Act is a sure sign that the Trump administration’s war on leakers has begun. But as the opening battle, it’s poorly chosen, and a serious mistake in prosecutorial discretion by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who should know better. Winner has the wrong profile for a headline-grabbing prosecution by …

Uber has been in the news a lot lately, and most of it hasn’t been pretty. Allegations of a sexist workplace culture, a high-profile legal battle with Alphabet Inc. (Google) over self-driving car technology, reports of attempts to skirt local laws, an anti-Uber Twitter campaign, and an exodus of top talent have put the ride-hailing giant on the back foot. …

You don’t have to be a genius to become a mathematician. If you find this statement at all surprising, you’re an example of what’s wrong with the way our society identifies, encourages and rewards talent. As a mathematician who studied at Berkeley, Harvard and Princeton, I’ve known geniuses. I got to hang out with Andrew Wiles, who is credited with …

Google, which controls more than 40 percent of the US digital ad market, has decided to teach the world which ads are acceptable and which aren’t. Starting next year, its Chrome web browser will block all ads — including those bought through Google — on websites that don’t follow guidelines set by an industry group. This monopolistic move is meant …

What does the FBI director do when he suspects the president is a manipulative liar? The answer in James Comey’s case is that he writes memos, tries to evade demands for loyalty — and anguishes about protecting himself and the FBI. But by Comey’s own admission, perhaps he should have done more. The big news had already surfaced before Comey’s …

There’s something about the Indian stock market this year that’s turning the serious business of managing money into a kindergarten spoon race: Everybody is a winner. Well, almost everybody. Among offshore funds that primarily invest in India, the top 30, which between them account for $40 billion in assets, have produced average returns of almost 25% so far in 2017, …