Emmanuel Macron’s youthful energy stands in sharp contrast with France’s biggest banks, whose shares have, in the main, languished since his election as president. Societe Generale SA, once the poster child for French expertise in derivatives, has the most work to do to restore investor confidence. A more energetic approach to succession planning and to pruning underperforming businesses — with ...

The biggest short-term threat to the US economy comes from President Donald Trump’s dangerous maneuvers on trade, not the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. But knowing this doesn’t much help the Fed do its job, which is getting more complicated for reasons closer to home: The outlook for inflation is shifting, and Fed officials are wondering how to respond. At their ...

European Union bureaucrats have come up with an ingenious mechanism for getting maverick governments, mostly in Eastern Europe, into line. The EU wants the power to cut off funding to countries it sees as weakening the rule of law. At the same time, if the bureaucrats get their way, the affected governments would be forced to provide financing for the ...