Money‚ Markets & Macroeconomics

Water can flow around U.S. infrastructure blockage

24 May 2019

The $1 trln needed to fix the nation’s aging pipes and other H2O infrastructure isn’t coming any time soon – as a new delay to a U.S. funding plan makes clear. The industry still has room for improvement, though, starting with better use of technology, data and capital.

May’s replacement will face same Brexit dilemma

24 May 2019

The British prime minister’s resignation was inevitable. But the Conservative party’s next leader will have no chance of negotiating a better Brexit deal, and faces the same parliamentary opposition. That leaves a risky election as one of the few remaining options.

Popular Modi puts Indian resistance to the test

24 May 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been re-elected despite concerns he strong-arms the central bank, judiciary, and media. Voters seem unfussed about checks and balances - a global trend. But if he pushes them too hard, India’s democratic institutions will struggle to hold up.

Tech firms can be citizens as well as piggy banks

23 May 2019

San Francisco is mulling a so-called IPO tax to help fund affordable housing. Money isn’t really the issue, though: useful projects get snared in local opposition. Facebook and its ilk would do more good getting staff to be engaged citizens, and even incentivizing them to do so.

Breakdown: Europe’s least irrelevant election

23 May 2019

Voting for the European Parliament is typically a way for a minority of citizens to register dislike of domestic leaders. This year’s poll is no exception. Yet the results will offer clues about national politics, the power of the eurosceptics, and who gets the EU’s top jobs.

Canada adds startup-like optimism to tech turf war

22 May 2019

The country has simpler immigration, livable cities and lower valuations than its southern neighbor. Capitalizing on U.S. dysfunction in a bid to become a tech magnet is smart. But if Silicon Valley is any guide Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be careful what he wishes for.

The Exchange: The trouble with America

20 May 2019

The country no longer loves the unremarkable and its inequitable universities are unsustainable, NYU’s Scott Galloway tells Breakingviews. As his new book “The Algebra of Happiness” hits the shelves, he also discusses his prescient Amazon call and why Big Tech needs breaking up.

Guest view: An EU election that really matters

20 May 2019

The vote that takes place across the European Union this week is, more than ever before, one on the bloc's future, writes Fabrizio Pagani of Muzinich & Co. And the outcome may catalyse change in countries that have an unstable political outlook, such as Italy and Britain.

Mother Earth loses the Australian election

20 May 2019

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's coalition held power over a Labor party that campaigned on climate change and was tipped to win for over a year. Some wealthy seats backed the cause, but most voters were alarmed at the economic cost. It’s a bad sign for the world from Down Under.

Bitcoin’s latest surge lacks ground support

16 May 2019

Markets are again eyeing the digital currency after it doubled in six weeks. Yet adoption of its blockchain technology remains sluggish and applications developed by Amazon, Microsoft and others don’t need the crypto-asset. That virtually assures more bitcoin volatility.

Viewsroom: The lasting effects of Trump’s tariffs

16 May 2019

Washington and Beijing may yet find a way to end their escalating trade war soon. But for many businesses, the damage already inflicted will be hard to undo. Plus: CEO Mark Zuckerberg might not welcome more calls to break up Facebook, but shareholders could benefit.

U.S.-China tech war may split progress in two

16 May 2019

Nationalism has sparked Washington and Beijing to begin separating their tech sectors, on supposed security grounds. Economics promises to prolong the struggle. Clustering, scale and technical prowess mean both sides can succeed in areas like 5G even if the outcome isn’t optimal.

Cox: Imagine the end of the oil supertanker era

16 May 2019

By pitching one of the 1,000-foot vessels vertically from the sea, Brooklyn artist Dustin Yellin wants to use epic sculpture to remind humanity of the urgent need to ditch hydrocarbons. As a big tourist attraction “The Bridge” would also be a metaphor for economic sustainability.

Brooklyn rebuild embodies U.S. infrastructure woes

14 May 2019

The New York City borough’s iconic promenade needs repair. The metropolis’s belated plan to fix it is costly, myopic and far from transparent. With Infrastructure Week under way, it’s a timely tale showing why the nation’s waterways, roads and the like are in such a mess.

The Exchange: John Taylor

13 May 2019

The economist and leading proponent of a rules-based strategy for monetary policy recently convened a powwow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution at which top policymakers brought diverse views on the Fed’s conduct to the fore. He fillets some of the choicest bits with Rob Cox.

South African election rebuke sets up reform test

10 May 2019

Support for the ruling ANC dropped below 60% for the first time since apartheid. That gives President Cyril Ramaphosa the impetus to reverse the country’s downward slide. Voters and investors will judge him on how he tackles corruption, overmighty unions and shoddy state firms.

Aussie election campaign blows hot air on climate

10 May 2019

It’s a rare place where voters have put the environment atop the list of their ballot priorities. The $1.3 trln economy is among the most vulnerable to global warming, but also depends on coal. Unfortunately, neither of the two main parties is tackling the contradiction head-on.

Cox: Trump Fed misfire rallies its true believers

9 May 2019

It’s not the first time a U.S. president has tried to meddle in monetary policy. But the failed shoehorning of partisans onto the central bank’s board has bound hawks and doves together in a robust defense of the institution’s independence, as a recent Stanford confab revealed.

American markets are great again for Chinese IPOs

9 May 2019

A near-record number of Chinese firms went public on U.S. exchanges in 2018. Luckin Coffee is among those continuing the trend this year. It contrasts with sharp drops in Chinese investment amid a trade war and other strains. But the healthy pipeline faces a new Shanghai rival.

Hadas: CEOs would benefit from more humanities

8 May 2019

Companies rely on science and engineering grads, especially in the Big Data era, but many tough problems are cultural and psychological. The best way to face them is with the liberal arts, which deal with grand dramas and complex conflicts. It's time to rethink C-suite education.