Opinion

  Noah Smith Earlier this year, the U.S. Census Bureau delivered some good news. Finally, after years of what seemed like a sluggish and uncertain recovery, American incomes were rising strongly again. Median household income jumped by more than 5 percent in 2015, and the lion’s share of the gains went to middle-class and lower-income folks. Employment rose strongly, and …

  Donald Trump, it seems, embraces the old dictum: Make no small plans. Already, he’s published an agenda for his first 100 days in office, recalling Franklin’s Roosevelt’s launching of the New Deal. Not surprisingly, near the top of Trump’s to-do list is a pledge to double economic growth from its recent desultory rate of 2 percent a year to …

  For many people, Donald Trump’s surprise election victory was a jolt to very idea that humans are rational creatures. It tore away the comfort of believing that science has rendered our world predictable. The upset led two New York Times reporters to question whether data science could be trusted in medicine and business. A Guardian columnist declared that big …

  China’s government isn’t shy about looking for ways to highlight democracy’s failings, and the U.S. presidential election provided plenty of raw material. Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, Donald Trump’s locker-room talk, the debates: Every low point was touted and cataloged on state media. On Election Day, the Communist Party’s official newspaper offered a closing argument: Trump versus Clinton was symptomatic of …

  It is nothing short of a miracle that the members of Venezuela’s government and the opposition carried out a dialogue. Such a meeting would have been unimaginable two months back. The Vatican — which brokered the talks — needs to be lauded for making the impossible happen in a very conducive environment. Despite criticism from some quarters, the meeting …

  Many of the California tech industry’s leaders are unhappy with the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. This being Silicon Valley, they’ve come up with an innovative response: Secede from the union. It’s one idea I hope they won’t bring to fruition. California supported Hillary Clinton more than any other state, yet the election was called before its votes …

  The issue of hindsight bias and fooling ourselves about what we think knew a priori haunts investors constantly. We are reminded of this by those who claim they saw the financial meltdown coming. Despite the lack of proof, they remain convinced they knew what was about to happen all along. These folks are fooling themselves. Due to several cognitive …

  Matthew Winkler There’s been nothing but trouble for much of Africa as the price of oil plummeted 55 percent during the past two and a half years. But there’s a brighter side to the sub-Saharan continent. Unlike Nigeria, where oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports, or South Africa, which never recovered from the 2008 financial crisis …

  The Republican Party resembles the man who told his psychiatrist, “I have an identity problem, and so do I.” The party’s leader is at best indifferent to, and often is hostile to, much of the party’s recent catechism: limited government, the rule of law, a restrained executive, fiscal probity, entitlement reforms, free trade, the general efficiency and equity of …

Donald Trump proclaimed “America First” on his way to his head-spinning victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, and the success of that message will rock many foreign capitals where leaders have feared that Trump would alter the basics of U.S. foreign policy. Making predictions about Trump’s foreign policy is difficult, given his lack of experience. But the most likely bet is …