Koreans have a saying that helps explain the recent upbeat exchanges between Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang: “Say pretty things to hear pretty things.” Beyond the Trump White House, there remains much skepticism that North Korea will ever give up its nuclear weapons. Recent leaks about North Korea’s continuing efforts to build its nuclear and missile arsenal underline this concern that ...

One of the chief criticisms of the Federal Reserve’s strategy of prolonged low interest rates was that it punished savers. But now that Fed is generally raising rates, the rewards don’t appear to be going to them. Instead, I calculate that as much as 83 percent of the gains are going to the banks, with the largest ones sucking up ...

Commodity investors are acting like it’s the last days of Rome. News that the Trump administration was planning to increase the tariff rate on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent sent markets into a tailspin, with a Bloomberg Intelligence index of mining companies falling 1.7 percent and every major industrial metal slumping in synchrony. Rio ...