World News Insights: Opinion Articles

"Living” with Covid-19 has been talked about since the pandemic first began: A moment when the coronavirus disease becomes part of everyday life, rather than an overpowering wave of cases and deaths that overloads hospitals and triggers society-crushing lockdowns. This so-called “endemic” phase…

Lionel Laurent

As earnings season begins, one of the biggest emerging storylines is that Netflix Inc.’s most formidable rivals, led by Walt Disney Co., already may be starting to falter. If Disney can’t get to where Netflix is, can anyone? Netflix is set to kick off the industry’s quarterly reports next week…

Tara Lachapelle

Within the next fortnight two of the Earth’s wealthiest individuals will attempt to fly into space. Richard Branson’s flight on Sunday aboard a Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. spaceship will be followed by Jeff Bezos’s rocket trip with Blue Origin LLC on July 20. In a summer not lacking in awe…

Chris Bryant

I wouldn’t want to be a political strategist for US business right now. The natural position of business in US politics is to be an independent interest group, aligned with neither party. That allows business interests to lobby whichever party is in office. And in theory it’s a viable strategy;…

Jonathan Bernstein

The fallout from Didi Global Inc.’s New York listing at the end of June have generated securities fraud class action suits. If the US lawyers behind those cases are looking for fresh ammunition to use against China’s ride-hailing giant, could they find it in ByteDance Ltd., China’s other big…

Shuli Ren

Defining Mr. Ahmad Jibril, who passed away a few days ago, is a difficult task. He fits better in the category of “was not” than “was.” His name, of course, wasn’t linked to launching the Palestinian nationalism of Yasser Arafat or his first comrades. He wasn’t part of the “resistance’s left” like…

Hazem Saghieh

It was a once in a lifetime trip. The plane took off from Damascus airport. That was on May 20, 1985. I looked behind me and saw the captured Israeli soldier surveying the place, most likely dreaming of regaining his freedom, but obviously fearing the surprises of the last hours. The actual…

Ghassan Charbel

What RRR the Chinese Authorities Up To? The biggest financial news to start the week is that China is cutting its reserve requirement ratios, or RRRs, for all banks. This means that they can lend more, and so injects more money into the Chinese economy. It is a loosening move that means more…

John Authers

With policy shifting away from Covid relief toward more long-term goals such as shoring up infrastructure and promoting competition, US lawmakers have a rare opportunity to address the American economy’s deep structural issues. And because the pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to businesses,…

Noah Smith

Bitcoin lovers, cry foul! Accounting firms are restricting corporations from holding the cryptocurrency as assets even as they give free rein to venture capital firms — such as SoftBank Group Corp. — to invest in equally risky and volatile unicorns. MicroStrategy Inc. and Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc…

Shuli Ren

“I had to get out of America. It has gotten so ugly, so dark and my pessimism had grown so high that I needed to do something different.” That’s how pollster Frank Luntz, currently a visiting fellow at the Center for Policy Studies, explained his decision to spend a summer in Britain studying…

Therese Raphael

Credit Suisse Group AG has portentously unveiled a new vision for its employees’ work-life balance with “The Way We Work.” The initiative, which promises maximum flexibility, is just too good to be true or manageable. It’s the latest example of what’s becoming an all-too-common theme: large…

Marcus Ashworth