This past week, I gave a lecture to a Georgetown University graduate seminar. The instructor’s challenge to me was to talk about technology as integral to energy security. Here is the argument I laid out for these students. In wind and solar energy—which only significantly depend on hydrocarbons during manufacturing and transport—technology is a relatively simple lens on energy. For ...

When discussing Japan’s debt, most people get caught up in the issue of fiscal solvency. As everyone by now knows, Japan has a very high level of debt versus gross domestic product: This attention-grabbing number—about twice the level of the US—often gets people asking whether Japan will default. Some believe a default is likely when the country runs out of ...

Bloomberg US equities fluctuated near records, while the dollar’s rally stalled near a two-month high as investors assessed the prospects for tax reform after a Republican senator raised concern it could inflate the deficit. The S&P 500 Index traded in a tight range close to all-time highs along with other US gauges. The dollar retreated after touching the highest level ...

Reuters Egypt’s stock market fell on Tuesday, ending a six-day winning streak that took the blue-chip index to an all-time high, while Gulf bourses traded narrowly but a couple of petrochemical shares boosted Saudi Arabia. The Egyptian index dropped 0.5 percent to 13,931 points. A purchasing managers’ survey published on Tuesday showed non-oil private sector activity fell at its sharpest ...

Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to keep its benchmark rate at a seven-year low this week amid slowing growth in Asia’s third-largest economy. With inflation climbing fast toward the Reserve Bank of India’s medium term target, the Federal Reserve starting to shrink its balance sheet and growing speculation the government may loosen purse strings to bolster ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank should avoid cutting interest rates further because borrowing costs are at an appropriate level even as loan growth remains subdued, according to the chief of the country’s biggest lender. The current benchmark rate of 4.25 percent is “quite optimal,” PT Bank Mandiri President Director Kartika Wirjoatmodjo said in an interview on Sept. 28. “Overall liquidity is ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged — as expected — reinforcing Governor Philip Lowe’s reluctance to follow developed-world counterparts and tighten policy. “Over recent months there have been more consistent signs that non-mining business investment is picking up,” Lowe said in Tuesday’s statement. “A consolidation of this trend would be a welcome development. Business conditions as reported in ...

Bloomberg The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union poses a “substantial risk of disruption” to cross-border clearing of financial contracts, according to the Bank of England (BOE). The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has proposed supervision rules that could force foreign clearinghouses to locate the clearing of derivatives denominated in EU currencies inside the bloc. In response, some clearinghouses ...

Bloomberg Japan’s currency is taking a larger share of global foreign exchange reserves, in a pattern that’s coinciding with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gradually incorporating China’s holdings into its published data. The yen is now at its highest proportion since the end of 2002. In the second quarter, it accounted for $429 billion out of the $9.26 trillion worth ...

Bloomberg Banks and regulators in Southeast Asia should strengthen financial-sector rules and guidelines to promote funding for environment-friendly projects in a region threatened by deforestation and climate change, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said. Measures to promote sustainable finance in the region are “high level,” and don’t involve the incentives or penalties which would get banks to properly integrate environmental ...