Hong Kong’s most unpopular leader since the city returned to Chinese rule stayed in character to the end. Carrie Lam paid tribute to her backers in Beijing, while eschewing any mention of the financial center’s people as she confirmed she won’t seek a second five-year term. The chief executive put the central authorities first, second and third on her list ...

The US Commerce Department announced that consumer spending fell 0.4% in February from January after adjusting for inflation. This may not seem like much, but real spending has dropped in three of the last four months. Without strength in household outlays, the economic expansion is doomed. Capital spending provided a minor boost to the economy but didn’t recover the losses ...

  Elon Musk bought a $3 billion stake in Twitter Inc, because when you’re the world’s richest human you can toss billions around just like that. This may be just another piece of performance art from Musk, who has alternately endorsed and pooh-poohed Bitcoin to great effect. He’s also taken to Twitter to hype altcoins such as Dogecoin and Shiba ...