Economic reforms are much like New Year’s diet resolutions: easily announced and easily forgotten. So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the pronouncements that have emerged from China’s National People’s Congress — pledges to slash overcapacity, open up the financial system, accept lower growth — echo unfulfilled promises from previous Party gatherings. Still, China prides itself on being different. The …

A little more than a decade ago, Hong Kong was the world’s busiest port. Giant vessels competed to get into the city’s berths, waiting to load and unload containers filled with goods manufactured just over the border in China’s factory towns. Back then, Hong Kong still expected that its freewheeling commercial culture could change China for the better. And trading …

BLOOMBERG The dollar extended its best run of gains in a month and oil rallied before the Federal Reserve’s policy review on Wednesday that may shed light on the timing of U.S. interest-rate increases. America’s currency climbed versus the yen after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the Asian nation’s key rate could theoretically drop to minus 0.5 percent. …