Opinion

  There’s a very deep, important concept in economics that gets way too little attention from the public (and possibly from economists themselves). This is the idea of asymmetric information. The concept has been around for decades, and research about it has won Nobel prizes, but neither the profession nor the public has ever put it at the center of ...

  Leonid Bershidsky Another Tesla has crashed because the driver thought its self-driving technology could actually drive the car. As we read all the stories about magical technology and then use the hyped-up products, we ought to keep in mind that the “magic” hits the market long before they live up to their promise, which in some cases they will ...

  It’s a measure of international investors’ desperation that they are long the Russian ruble and other Russian assets. Even though fears of a major Russian onslaught in Ukraine are likely to prove unfounded, there’s nothing about the Russian economy that can support an asset boom, and it’s only a matter of time before the central bank is compelled to ...

  Maybe the college student debt burden isn’t so crushing after all. That’s the surprising gist of a new study by economists at the president’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). It’s surprising because burgeoning student debt has become a new economic worry and a political “cause celebre.” It adds to the hurt of millennials, who already face a tough job ...

  Facebook collects less than the 5 percent of the $500 billion spent on advertising each year. For Facebook to achieve the deepest, darkest dreams of Mark Zuckerberg, the company must become the first one that dominates both the kind of precision ads that built Google and the emotional ads that made TV the world’s dominant marketing force. Facebook has ...

  It has been a good few months for Wall Street debt traders. Credit-trading profits surged in the three months ended June 30. And based on recent market activity, fixed-income revenues are still coming in strong. Consider that US investment-grade and high-yield bond trading volumes have risen to record levels since the beginning of July compared with previous periods. The ...

  Israel has deployed a new strategy to hamper aid works in Gaza. It has been levelling myriad accusations against international NGOs and aid workers to make Gazans’ life more miserable. Israel accused that one of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) staff helped Hamas fighters in Gaza. Israel charged engineer Waheed Borsh with diverting aid to Hamas, particularly by using ...

  Regulatory reform was a big part of Donald Trump’s major economic address yesterday, which offered three proposals to reduce excessive regulation. The problem is serious. The proposals aren’t. First, Trump calls for a temporary moratorium on all federal regulations. For starters, that would be unlawful. Congress has required executive agencies to issue regulations involving air pollution, food safety, consumer ...

  Chris Bryant When Eon said almost two years ago it would split in two — separating its traditional business of generating power into a new company, to leave it with renewables and electricity grids — the embattled German utility seemed on the cusp of fresh start. The 3 billion-euro ($3.4 billion) first-half net loss Eon posted on Wednesday shows ...

  For 32 years, a group of Republican and Democratic foreign-policy experts has gathered here each summer to debate strategic issues facing the country. This year the bipartisan group had a strange imbalance: None of the Republicans was prepared to argue the case of the GOP nominee, Donald Trump. Trump would probably be pleased to know that he failed to ...