There is much to dislike in President Trump’s trade agenda, but he is correct on one subject: China’s relentless quest to extort American “intellectual property”—technologies, business methods, patents. Trump took a swipe last week at China’s policies by ordering his top trade officials to investigate. Whether he can alter China’s behavior is unclear, but he is right to try, even ...

President Donald Trump’s decision last week to disband the Manufacturing Council and Strategy & Policy Forum not only puts his agenda to revitalize the nation’s infrastructure in jeopardy, it also weakens the precarious support commodities such as copper, steel and crude oil have relied upon. Although not stellar, global commodity prices had shown decent support ever since it became clear ...

Risk assets across the globe, despite already high valuations, have recovered impressively from a sell-off triggered by concerns about a North Korean nuclear attack. In doing so, they have again highlighted the extent to which traders and investors—highly confident about the environment they operate in (be it economic, financial or institutional)— have developed endogenous stabilizers. And while there is a ...