2026-03-17 18:00:02
The Department of Justice in President Donald Trump’s second term has sometimes been referred to as the president’s personal law firm. But that characterization is unfair to law firms. Although private lawyers advocate zealously on behalf of their clients, most constrain themselves within the limits of the law and professional ethics.
2026-03-17 17:30:02
President Donald Trump has a habit of referring to Democrats as “radical-left lunatics.” The unfair pejorative aside, it turns out the typical Democratic voter isn’t even left wing. Let that sink in.
2026-03-17 17:00:02
Every financial crisis has a moment — usually identified only in retrospect — when an obscure product intended to mitigate risk spreads through what author Rick Bookstaber called “tightly coupled” interconnections to cause widespread damage. The first sign is lots of hard-to-understand stories that seem unrelated except that they all involve a single sector.
2026-03-17 13:00:04
Friedrich Merz is a remarkably unpopular chancellor of Germany. According to recent polling, less than a quarter of Germans have a positive opinion of him, and those numbers are dwindling fast. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, least of all Merz. He came to power less than a year ago on a manifesto promising “Political Change for Germany.” Since then, he’s avoided tackling crucial reforms. If he thinks that’s playing it safe, he’s mistaken. Germans voted for change and expect him to deliver.
2026-03-17 13:00:02
The Federal Reserve is about to give America’s biggest lenders an extra $200 billion of capital to play with. Later this week, US regulators will launch fresh proposals to update and, in some ways, loosen US capital rules that will fuel stock buybacks, lending and trading. But there’s a danger here: Too much haste in deploying all this spare cash risks overheating the economy and housing markets in unhealthy ways.
2026-03-17 12:12:23
The 18 central banks meeting this week didn’t initially have a war on their agendas.
