Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident-turned-president, wrote a famous essay about the life of the mind under a system of totalitarian control. He invoked the example of a greengrocer who puts a sign in his window saying, “Workers of the world, unite!”— not believing in it and perhaps not even knowing what it meant, but ritually accepting it as the officially ...

Facts are facts, but their interpretation is often subject to preconceived notions that can be easily misunderstood. Households have been net sellers of stocks for some time, which is a fact. The interpretation of this fact, however, can go badly awry. The dangerous implicit assumption is that households are selling because they want to reduce their exposure to equities. That ...

Merck chief executive Kenneth Frazier deserves congratulations for resigning from a White House business council to protest President Donald Trump’s shameful response to last weekend’s white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Virginia. So do two other CEOs who followed his example. More corporate leaders should do the same. It’s in their interest to do so. Corporate leaders lend credibility to a ...

China is the largest market for General Motors, but there is no GM China. Instead, there is SAIC-GM, a joint venture between China’s largest state-owned auto company and GM.All auto companies operating in China have a similar partner, such as SAIC-Volkswagen, GAC-Toyota and Changan-Ford. And the partners are typically state-owned companies, and their names come first. Doing business in China ...

China’s budget and trade scolds should pause for reflection. Debt racked up by China’s government, companies and households will likely balloon to almost 300 percent of gross domestic product by early next decade, the International Monetary Fund projected in its annual review of the country’s economy. Big, for sure, and a risk to global financial stability. But anything less would ...

The rally this year in US stocks has been defined by its lack of breadth. Put another way, without the eye-popping returns of a few high-flying technology stocks, the performance of the market would look very different—and not in a good way. So it’s more than a bit concerning when the so-called smart money starts to pull away from this ...

Bloomberg The Philippines is seeking investment from China and Japan for $135 billion worth of power projects that President Rodrigo Duterte’s government is ready to fast-track. The Southeast Asian nation has held discussions with China, Japan, Russia and other countries about helping it boost generation capacity by 43 gigawatts in the coming decades to stabilize its power supply as the ...

CAIRO / Reuters Egypt is hoping that long-awaited regulations approved to its new investment code will draw in fresh and needed cash from abroad as the country pushes ahead with reforms. Investment Minister Sahar Nasr told Reuters in an interview that the law could now be active within days. “Establishing (a company) will literally now take hours. It used to ...

Bloomberg Sempra Energy is the mystery third bidder for Oncor Electric Delivery Co. that’s competing with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. San Diego-based Sempra has made a $9.3 billion offer for the Texas utility, said the people, who declined to be identified because the matter is not ...

DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s central bank said it had not banned trading of the Qatari riyal since Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Doha, and said visiting Qatari citizens could exchange their currency. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing Doha of backing terrorism, which Qatar denies. ...