September, 2017

• 24 September

  The steep cost of cheap speech

  

  At this shank end of a summer that a calmer America someday will remember with embarrassment, you must remember this: In the population of 325 million, a small sliver crouches on the wilder shores of politics, another sliver lives in the dark forest of mental disorder, and there is a substantial overlap between these slivers. At most moments, 312 million ...

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• 24 September

  Yes—open markets have to heed national-security worries

  

  Leaders from Washington to Brussels are increasingly troubled by the flood of Chinese money seeking acquisitions abroad, and asking themselves how best to respond. The answer is: more carefully. The US has a federal panel, created more than four decades ago, that scrutinizes foreign investments for national-security implications, but it isn’t adequate to the task. The European Union’s current arrangements ...

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• 24 September

  Investors shouldn’t ignore what the Fed doesn’t know

  The Federal Reserve is about to take another small step toward getting US monetary policy back to normal. The only catch is that, as with politics and the economy, no one really knows what “normal” means anymore. So far, investors have viewed this unusual situation calmly, and the Fed is hoping this doesn’t change. But calm can become complacency—and that’s ...

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• 24 September

  New rules and old conflicts for legal defense funds

  When members of the White House staff find themselves under criminal investigation, they should be allowed to raise money for their legal defense. They should not be allowed, as a newly revised policy from the Office of Government Ethics permits, to accept contributions from anonymous donors. The cost of public service is sometimes unreasonable, occasionally outrageous, and extracted from members ...

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• 24 September

  Why the world’s workers are losing to capitalists

  

  Back in April, I wrote about one of the most troubling mysteries in economics, the falling labor share. Less of the income the economy produces is going to people who work, and more is going to people who own things. This trend is worrying because it contributes to increased inequality—poor people own much less of the land and capital in ...

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• 24 September

  Accountants are next big thing in renewable energy

  

  What’s the most important innovation behind the rise of renewable energy: Taller wind turbines? Smart power grids? Spray-on solar cells? None of the above. For all the advances made by engineers that cut the cost of solar modules and new wind generation by more than half in five years, the true heroes of the renewables revolution may be a group ...

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• 24 September

  These Catalan separatists are on a path to failure

  

  There’s a hard truth to understand for the many Catalans who intend to vote for independence on October 1: Regardless of the legality of their vote, its result can only stand if they are ready to fight for it — and if they can win in a violent conflict. As things stand before the independence referendum, Catalonia and Spain are ...

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• 24 September

  Australian banks scrap cash machine charges for customers

  

  Bloomberg Australia’s four largest banks have scrapped cash withdrawal charges for all users, as the banking industry tries to salvage its reputation after a series of scandals. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s biggest lender, said on Sunday it would immediately remove the A$2 ($1.60) fee for all users of its 3,400 branded automated teller machines across the country. Westpac ...

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• 24 September

  Bankers see no Trump bump in bank lending

  

  Bloomberg Bankers advising the Federal Reserve Board said a lack of follow through in the Trump administration’s economic agenda has resulted in slowing credit demand despite high levels of sentiment. “The post-election expectation was that the gain in confidence and financial market deregulation would spur credit creation,” according to minutes released by the Federal Reserve Board of its Sept. 8 ...

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• 24 September

  China plans to call for bitcoin exchange halt by month-end

  

  Bloomberg China has notified regional regulators that it aims to stop exchange trading of cryptocurrencies by the end of September, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan was distributed by a People’s Bank of China-led group overseeing Internet finance risks, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private. The notice suggests policy ...

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