Finance & economics

Yes, please

YIMBY cities show how to build homes and contain rents

But to take full advantage of deregulation, Austin and Auckland need other changes

Matadors gather

Stocks are on an astonishing run. Yet threats lurk

We assess what could bring the bull market to an end

Sour spot

China’s leaders face miserable economic-growth figures

Reality intruded at the “third plenum”, intended to discuss long-term reforms

Free exchange

Xi Jinping really is unshakeably committed to the private sector

He balances that with being unshakeably committed to state-owned enterprises, too

Buttonwood

The dangerous rise of pension nationalism

Pursuing domestic investment at the expense of returns is reckless

Retaliate, negotiate, repeat

Europe prepares for a mighty trade war

Will it be able to stick to its rule-abiding principles?

On the money

Betting markets are useful when politics is chaotic

Why, then, are they largely outlawed in America?

Halting his charge

Trumponomics would not be as bad as most expect

Opposition would come from all angles

Good cop, bad cop

How strongmen abuse tools for fighting financial crime

They can get Western governments and banks to crack down on exiled dissidents

Disappearing act

Why Chinese banks are now vanishing

The state is struggling to deal with troubled institutions

Business creation

How Starbucks caffeinates local economies

Call it the frappuccino effect

Free exchange

How much cash should be removed from the financial system?

Undoing quantitative easing provokes fierce debate