There were howls of outrage when the Labour Party said earlier this year that it would force the Bank of England (BOE) to set a target for productivity if it won power. The announcement by the Conservative government that Andy Haldane, the central bank’s chief economist, will head a new Industrial Strategy Council is similarly distasteful. The new body “has ...

In signing the Paris climate agreement, the world’s governments pledged to keep the global average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. Leaving aside that their collective efforts and plans to curb greenhouse gases are not enough to accomplish that — the goal itself turns out to be too modest to prevent disastrous warming. Today’s report from the United ...

Over the last two decades, China has invested more than $125 billion in Africa to build ports, highways, airports, railways and other infrastructure. Chinese President Xi Jinping says funds, to the tune of $60 billion, will continue to flow because “inadequate infrastructure is believed to be the biggest bottleneck to Africa’s development.” China’s largesse has certainly benefited the continent. An ...