Last week’s shock resignation of Sajid Javid from his perch as UK chancellor of the exchequer is widely expected to facilitate a more profligate fiscal stance by the government. If the well-flagged increase in spending isn’t accompanied by higher taxes, bond yields could well head higher — especially if the Bank of England responds by adopting a more hawkish stance ...

On one side of the Atlantic, Tesla Inc. is capitalising on its soaring share price by selling $2 billion in stock so it can build more electric vehicles. On the other, French manufacturer Renault SA has been forced to cut its dividend by 70% and announce a big reduction in fixed costs so it can afford to do the same. ...

Like many of you, I’m sure, I read Ross Douthat’s essay on “The Age of Decadence” in Sunday’s New York Times while sprawled on a chaise, picking at my smashed avo and laudanum. Stirring from the languor, I wondered: How does energy fit with this thesis? Our energy system is decadent at a fundamental level. Roughly four fifths of what ...