Dubai / Reuters The United Arab Emirates, one of the Middle East’s largest economies, wants to expand trade ties with faster growing nations in Asia and Africa, a senior official said on Sunday. Gulf Arab states are looking at ways to diversify their economies, including who they trade with, after more than two years of depressed oil prices forced …

  Encouraging developments are as welcome as they are rare in colleges and universities that cultivate diversity in everything but thought. Fortunately, state legislatures, alumni and philanthropists are planting little academic platoons that will make campuses less intellectually monochrome. One such, just launched, is Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. A primary mission of institutions …

  Bank stocks often act as proxies for political risk, as well as economic barometers. When a government starts shaking or a recession looms, financial shares may be the first to suffer. If you trust bank analysts, that paradigm is about to change. Financial institutions in countries with high political risk have seen some of the steepest positive earnings revisions …