In Flemish, they call it a “Graadmeter.” In English, it’s a bellwether. Either way, it’s applicable to the layoffs announced by Proximus SA. The former Belgian telecom monopoly is cutting about 6 percent of its workforce as it accelerates the “digitalisation” of its business (though its statement does little to explain exactly what that means). Erstwhile national carriers almost uniformly ...

The conventional wisdom among President Donald Trump’s circle seems to be that he has no choice but to stick to his guns on the border wall: His base would regard anything less as a betrayal. Senator Lindsey Graham has gone so far as to say that, if Republicans fail to support Trump’s demand, it will be “the end of his ...

The ambition of China hawks in the Trump administration is to maintain American dominance by halting China’s economic rise. It’s strange that President Xi Jinping appears to be working toward the same end. The risk for any economy approaching China’s level of development is that it gets ensnared in the middle-income trap. Once the low-hanging fruit of urbanisation and industrialisation ...