Kevin Hassett evidently has not received the memo that economics is ‘the dismal science.’ The ebullient chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers is relishing the intellectual feast of applying to policymaking the predictive tools of a science that was blindsided by the Great Recession. Economists, like other scientists, learn things even when — actually, especially when — they ...

Poor Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. China’s third-most-indebted developer, already burdened by its acquisition of Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s hotel portfolio, has once again had to push back its A-share listing, just as more evidence emerges the government’s real-estate-cooling measures are starting to bite. R&F said on Sunday its planned float of shares in China, mooted as far back as May ...

High stock prices. It’s a chief reason voters gave for coming out again in favor of Shinzo Abe, who cinched another term as Japan’s prime minister on Sunday. Watching Japan’s stock market tick up to its highest level in two decades is a bit like watching the ‘likes’ accumulate from your so-called friends on a popular Facebook post. Affirmation tends ...