Finance & economics

Quantum for quants
Wall Street’s latest shiny new thing: quantum computing

A fundamentally new kind of computing will shake up finance—the question is when

Froth or fundamentals?
What explains investors’ enthusiasm for risky assets?

There may be more sense to recent market movements than you think

Panned
What if a gold standard were still in use?

A new study shows that the economy would be worse off

Free exchange
Is a wave of supply-chain reshoring around the corner?

Experience and evidence suggests they are stickier than you think

Energy markets
OPEC loosens up

Amid a cloudy outlook for oil, American frackers can no longer count on OPEC’s price supports

Counting the carbs
Making sense of banks’ climate targets

A lack of data and differing methodologies will make measuring performance fiendishly tricky

Mexico’s unbanked
Mexicans lack access to credit

Why the country lags other nations

Buttonwood
Retail investors often learn the wrong lessons from success

A study of Indian IPOs suggest investors confuse luck with skill

Free exchange
Where economists focus their research

They don’t always look in the right places

Reasons to be cheerful
The pandemic could give way to an era of rapid productivity growth

Businesses have adopted new processes and technologies—and there are signs that they may pay off

Jingle jangle
Universal Music buys Bob Dylan’s entire back catalogue

Investors are spending hundreds of millions to secure music royalties

The great accelerator
Covid-19 heightens private-equity investors’ interest in sport

As a business, sport has a lot going for it. Shame about the fans