The US Federal Reserve minutes show that central bank officials are increasingly committed to raising rates and shrinking the bank’s balance sheet. While economic signs remain mixed, continued growth, rising inflationary expectations, tightening labor markets and the need to temper asset prices would all seem to argue in favour of higher rates. Other central banks are likely to follow. The ...

There is a typical arc of bank scandals. Wells Fargo appears to be caught in a feedback loop, and its first-quarter earnings provided more evidence of that. Wells Fargo recently said that its quarterly earnings per share rose just 8 percent to $1.12, which was slightly more than the $1.06 analysts were expecting. The bank’s revenue of $21.9 billion was ...

As so often in the past, Mark Zuckerberg found himself apologizing this week. Testifying before Congress, he offered hours of penitence and self-reflection. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m committed to getting it right.” And just what would getting it right entail? In questioning Zuckerberg, the assembled members of Congress voiced a long series of abstract anxieties — about data collection ...