The latest round of congressional sanctions against Russia garnered much attention for the message they sent to President Donald Trump: We don’t trust you to decide when to lift or ease sanctions on Moscow. True, it was an important signal to the American people, the president and the rest of the world that nearly all of America’s legislators felt Russia …

In politics, holding the center ground might be a useful strategy for winning elections, but rarely for generating enthusiasm. Emmanuel Macron’s favorability ratings just dropped seven points, to a low 36 percent, according to a recent poll for the HuffPost and CNews. If he’s not careful, Macron may repeat the mistakes of Francois Hollande, his mentor and predecessor. Macron’s victory …

July was another month of very low inflation, we learned it. That’s too bad. Economists had anticipated a small but respectable gain in the US consumer price index. That would have relieved some pressure on the US Federal Reserve to delay interest-rate increases in the name of economic growth. The increase was indeed small at 0.1 percent in July from …