There’s a joke doing the rounds on Twitter: Brexit walks into a bar. “Why the long farce?” asks the barman. Unfortunately, it’s too close to the truth to be truly funny. Post-referendum Britain feels oddly different to the pre-plebisicite United Kingdom; less united, certainly, and also somewhat diminished as a kingdom. Less than five months after the surprise U.K. …

  Adam Minter Nobody would ever mistake the Chinese Communist Party for a fleet-footed, democratic organization responsive to public opinion. But over the decades it’s shown a capacity to recognize when political winds are shifting and has been willing to accept outside advice and solutions. That’s changing under President Xi Jinping. China’s leadership has grown increasingly isolated and distant from …

  Bloomberg A rally for Chinese banks listed in Hong Kong has cut their price gap to mainland shares in half — and that seems about as much as investors are willing to tolerate. In the five months through September, a gauge of the big four lenders’ Hong Kong shares jumped 15 percent as southbound cash poured into the stocks, …