Pity Philip Hammond, the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer. His budget announcement yesterday has to contend not just with the long-term fiscal implications of sluggish growth in productivity — a nagging issue for the British economy — but also with the government’s lack of a parliamentary majority and the enormous uncertainty surrounding Brexit. These conditions demand an exacting balance of …

There was widespread excitement last week on the news that Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund has announced an intention to sell off its oil and gas holdings. This amounts to about 6 percent of the fund’s stockholdings, about $37 billion. Environmental activists, in particular, are delighted and expect this to trigger a broader sell-off in fossil fuels. Bill McKibben, …

Two billionaire brothers, two bonds, two very different fates. This isn’t the plot of yet another sequel to Jeffrey Archer’s Kane and Abel, though it could very well be. Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, sold 10-year dollar notes at just 130 basis points over US Treasuries on Monday. None of the existing debt of Indian nonfinancial issuers, including state-owned firms, …