Opinion

KKR & Co. is stepping up investments in Japan. That’s a wise geographical choice. The US private-equity firm, which said it has raised a record $9.3 billion Asia fund, has made considerable strides in a country once hostile toward corporate takeovers. Of its top five deals in the region, three have been in Japan. Toshiba Corp.’s chip unit would be …

The notion that Donald Trump would ‘drain the swamp’ was always suspect. The then-candidate himself confessed to second thoughts about his pledge shortly after making it. Still, the speed and extent of his abandonment are stunning. Not only did Trump hire people with real or potential conflicts of interest, he at first refused to divulge how many or to whom …

It’s a common sight in rural China: rows and rows of low-rise apartment buildings, often topped by solar water heaters the size of kitchen tables. By one estimate, 30 million Chinese households rely upon the devices for hot water. They’re served by 3,000 companies that sell around one million of the devices annually. Neither subsidies nor environmental guilt account for …

For quite a while now, it’s been rare to hear the name “India” without the giddy qualifier, “the world’s fastest-growing large economy.” Those seeking to promote India as a destination for investment — including, perhaps especially, its government — have driven home the message that India is the “bright spot” in the global economy. The latest data on economic growth …

Critics of globalization have named their enemies: those citizens of the world who, in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s scornful phrase, are really “citizens of nowhere.” Populist leaders are championing policies to combat such cosmopolitanism — restricting migration, rethinking regional trade deals, pressuring companies to create jobs at home. Yet while it contains some truths, the populists’ diagnosis is incomplete. …

In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin asks his dad how engineers determine the weight limit on bridges. The dad answers that they do this by driving heavier and heavier trucks over the bridge until it breaks, then rebuild the bridge after discovering what it took to break it. This isn’t how engineers actually figure out the safety specifications …

There was no need for President Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement to achieve his goal of overturning the Obama administration’s global warming policy. This had already occurred through court rulings and executive orders, which effectively halted higher vehicle fuel economy standards (up to 54.5 miles per gallon) and ended the Clean Power Plan program, …

Uber is the San-Franscico-based technology company. It is also a transportation company. That may seem like a trivial distinction, but a lot is riding on it. And not just for Uber, but for every disrupter that fancies itself a technology company. Europe’s highest court — the European Court of Justice — will decide later this year whether Uber is more …

The European Commission has been thinking about ways to strengthen the euro zone, and is proposing a plan for a new “sovereign bond-backed security.” Give the commission credit for putting its finger on an important defect of the euro-zone system. Unfortunately, its remedy falls far short. The defect is the so-called “doom loop” between governments and banks. Banks in Europe …

Any rational, responsible business leader, faced with an existential threat to his enterprise, would take steps to manage the risk. With his decision to leave the Paris climate accord, President Donald Trump is putting the lie to one of his central claims: that he would run the country like a business. The Earth is threatened with rising seas, violent weather …