Gigantic government’s complexity and opacity provide innumerable opportunities for opportunists to act unconstrained by clear law or effective supervision. Today’s example, involving the government’s expropriation of hundreds of billions of dollars, features three sets of unsympathetic actors — a grasping federal government, a few hedge funds nimble at exploiting the co-mingling of government and the private sector, and two anomalous …

  The crackdown on smoking advertising is assuming a global trend. Many countries are moving gradually to tighten grip on smoking promotion to reduce tobacco-related deaths. The tobacco industry, which rakes in huge revenues and gives employment to lot many people, is lobbying hard to put brakes on an all-out war against tobacco even as governments move cautiously to address …

  Cal Wong SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Amid the slowdown in the Hong Kong property market, Hong Kong’s overall tax revenue has fallen for the first time in six years. In total, the taxman collected HK$291.3 billion (US$37.5 billion), down HK$10.6 billion from the year before. Stamp duty takings on property transactions have plunged 16 percent in the 2015-16 fiscal …