US politics today presents, to this foreign observer at least, a very un-American spectacle. A country originally built on immigration is awash with popular hatred against immigrants. A candidate of the right rails against free trade and foreigners, while that of the left proclaims his faith in socialism. Xenophobia is rife. Class war seems perilously close to the surface. The …

The Chinese Communist Party’s relationship with the private sector is a sensitive one, both in ideological and practical terms. Though it remains a nominally communist state, China’s role as an economic superpower is owed entirely to the fundamental overhaul of its state-controlled economy. Starting with Deng Xiaoping’s “Reform and Opening” campaign in 1978, the government gradually ceded control over the …

BLOOMBERG U.S. stock-index futures advanced and the dollar headed for the longest rally since October against the yen as speculation grew the world’s largest economy is strong enough to withstand another interest-rate increase. Oil rose for the first time in three days, sending Russia’s ruble toward the biggest gain in more than a week. Contracts on the Standard & Poor’s …