The mooted record-breaking leveraged buyout of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is a reminder of the powerful role of private capital in modern finance. But the fact that a private equity owner has a chance at making decent returns even after paying a premium for the US pharmacist raises difficult questions. Might the public markets be missing something yet again? A ...

Investors and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are fretting over the risk of a potential global recession caused by the US-China trade war. Their concern is misplaced. The true danger to global growth is the weakness of China’s domestic economy. Total US trade isn’t declining. On the contrary, it’s growing at or just beneath its decade-long rate. ...

Bloomberg Stocks in Europe slid on Monday along with US equity-index futures as traders awaited further developments on the trade front, while turmoil in Hong Kong added to the risk-off mood. Gold and the yen climbed. Banks and miners led the Stoxx Europe 600 index lower, and futures on the S&P 500 gauge also fell after President Donald Trump said ...