In his new book on how to fix inequality, French economist Thomas Piketty may have gone a little too far with a call for a 90% wealth tax for billionaires and multimillionaires, but putting a tax on huge fortunes may well make sense. Bill Gates, the second richest man in the world, thinks so. His case makes it clear why ...

In some ways President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, seems like the opposite of the man he will replace, John Bolton. His current job in government is special envoy for hostage affairs, meaning he has had to negotiate with the sorts of rogues Bolton shunned. Earlier this year he negotiated the release of US citizen Danny Burch ...

The real impact of the attack on Saudi oil installations last weekend goes well beyond the temporary loss of 5% of global oil production: It strikes at the heart of the mechanism that’s guaranteed the security of the world’s crude supply for most of the past 50 years. Ever since the western oil majors lost control of output in the ...