Is US  President Donald J Trump dismantling the regulatory state? Not close. To be sure, recent headlines give the impression that he is. On one day, the Department of Transportation proposes to scale back fuel-economy requirements for motor vehicles. On another, the Department of Education proposes to eliminate regulations on for-profit colleges, designed to protect against exploitation and abuse of students. ...

Italy’s new government has clearly learned that saying the right sort of thing works. Yields have raced in this week on a barrage of press reports that the populist government is going to respect European Union rules in the 2019 budget. Ten-year BTP yields have fallen nearly 40 basis points this week, driving the spread to German debt down to ...

Whenever there’s a bout of emerging-markets flu, Indonesia catches it. Jakarta may be crying foul, because it looked as though the nation was inoculated: Since May, Bank Indonesia has raised benchmark rates by 1.25 percentage points as insurance against the stronger dollar, almost as aggressive a move as during the 2013 taper tantrum. Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo’s government may increase ...