The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

Bloomberg Election officials in Liberia started counting ballots after polling stations closed in presidential and parliamentary elections that regional observers said were conducted peacefully. Liberians chose a president to replace Nobel Peace Price laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from among 20 candidates who include a retired soccer star, a former warlord and a wealthy chicken farmer. The turnout among the 2.1 ...

Critics have complained about President Trump’s bombast on foreign policy, but some GOP insiders worry about a less visible problem—a hollowed-out bureaucracy that has been slow to develop and implement strategy. Skeptics say that on major issues—Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Russia—the Trump administration hasn’t explained clear, systematic plans for achieving results. Even where there seems to be a coherent diplomatic ...

Several state attorneys general have announced they will sue to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s rollback of President Barack Obama’s signature Clean Power Plan. Can they win? And should they? The answer to both questions is no, but not because of anything inherently wrong with the plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. Although administrative decisions must be rational, ...

The vast majority of high-level economic officials gathering at the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meetings in Washington this week will welcome and embrace both the recent and the prospective improvements in the global economy. And they should. The ongoing synchronized pick-up in growth has taken a long time to materialize, and is occurring in the context of unusually subdued ...

Three years since their banking union began to take shape, European Union regulators are seeking fresh powers to deal with lenders in trouble. Their plan would let them stop withdrawals from a failing bank for a few days while they address the problem, with the aim of preventing a run. But this approach could easily have the opposite effect, spreading ...

A candid memoir by former US Defense Secretary Ash Carter provides a rare opportunity to better understand President Barack Obama’s Syria strategy before it recedes into the historical distance. His many valuable insights raise one big question, however: Why did the US even get involved? The apparent goal of Carter’s detailed reminiscences is to establish his role in the defeat ...

Tim Ryan’s challenge to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi last year had no chance of seriously threatening her position because the bulk of the Democratic caucus is more liberal than him. But a new one from California’s Linda Sanchez taking aim at Pelosi, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and Assistant Minority Leader James Clayburn could prove quite serious indeed. Sanchez is ...

Economists would almost universally agree that fiscal discipline is a good thing. No government should aspire to live beyond its means. If it does, the consequences can be severe: higher inflation, higher interest rates, low private investment and lower growth. India’s current government has justly been praised for its fiscal restraint. It’s reduced the overall fiscal deficit and reoriented spending ...

Bloomberg The euro extended gains and Spanish assets held their advance as the country’s government maintained a hard line on Catalonia’s independence bid. The dollar weakened as investors awaited minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting. “Fed minutes could show a discussion on inflation, which the market is likely to take as dovish,” said Mark McCormick, North American head of ...

Reuters Insurance stocks helped to drag down Saudi Arabia’s market on Wednesday because of fears of a shakeout in the industry, while bourses in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar rose, helped by a bullish global trend in equities. The main Saudi index sank 2.2 percent to 6,890 points, closing significantly below the 200-day moving average, now at 7,042 points, ...