Sooner or later, all UK Chancellors of the Exchequer have a choice to make: Are they the prime minister’s executive assistant for financial affairs? Or their successor in waiting? It’s a question that comes up because of the relative might of the UK Treasury and the ghosts of great Chancellors past, from William Gladstone to Winston Churchill to Gordon Brown. ...

Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy is being heralded as a new leader for Europe in the post-Angela Merkel era. With German politics in the deep freeze and France’s Emmanuel Macron facing presidential elections, Draghi, who’s credited with saving the euro with three words, looks like an unequalled pair of safe hands. To get an idea of why Europe’s elites ...

Long a source of resilience in the world economy, China joins the list of vulnerabilities that threaten to upset a shaky recovery. The slowdown in Chinese growth, exacerbated by debt crises in the property sector and an energy shortage that is closing factories, makes the global rebound even more dependent on the US Beijing doesn’t look like it’s ready to ...