Opinion

  FBI Director James Comey is an institution man. So it must be especially painful to him that he is single-handedly undermining faith not only in the institution he leads, but in the propriety of a presidential election. Comey has been balancing the interests of those institutions, the FBI and the election, for months. In July, when he held a …

  After winning the parliamentary confidence vote on Saturday, Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted, “We have a lot of work to do.” The premier realizes that the road ahead for him is fraught with formidable challenges. Rajoy was sworn in on Monday. He will name a new Cabinet on Thursday. The first thing that Rajoy has to do is …

  Leave it to a couple of Mexican cement and metals companies to expose Donald Trump’s calumnies about the relatively buoyant American economy, its resurgent workers and the advantages of free trade. Trump overwhelmed 16 rivals in the Republican presidential primaries by vowing to build a wall across the southern border and scored his best debating points against Hillary Clinton …

  Airbnb Inc. is all about progress and efficiency and win-win economic outcomes, right? Underused real estate is transformed into lodging for visitors. The owners of the real estate gain, the visitors gain, the local economy gains and Airbnb’s shareholders gain. Sure, hotel owners and employees have some reason to gripe as they lose business to largely unregulated competitors. But …

  To understand this nasty and nutty campaign, you have to go back to 1973, which is before roughly 60 percent of today’s Americans were alive. The backward trip in time illuminates how the United States and, indeed, most advanced nations, became addicted to rapid economic growth and how this, in turn, polluted our politics. It bred disillusion and disappointment. …

Under securities law, a publicly disclosed half-truth is worse than no truth at all, according to an appeals court opinion filed this week involving Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. The decision has an intuitive moral appeal. But it’s not at all clear that it makes sense from the standpoint of investors, who might be misled just as thoroughly by failure to disclose …

  Because Brexit isn’t risky enough, apparently, Britain’s Conservative government has decided to embark on another project fraught with potential for failure. For many years, the country has been arguing furiously about a big expansion of London’s Heathrow airport. Having once opposed the idea, the Tories say they are now in favour. Prime Minister Theresa May is right: Heathrow needs …

  She never talks about her goal of becoming the first woman president in US history. People talk. And she rarely speaks of breaking the highest and hardest glass ceiling holding women down. Her supporters say so. But she did announce her choice of an Election Night venue symbolic of this ambition: the enormous Javits Center in New York constructed …

  Here’s a little diversion to pass the time as you endure Washington’s policy debates. Listen for phrases like “All we have to do” or “We need just a small tweak” or “There’s a really simple fix.” Then watch to see what happens. Whatever that person is proposing will prove to be really, really costly—politically or fiscally or both. On …

The move from active investing to passive has been a hot topic lately. Fund flows show that investors are voting with their feet. The news media has been all over the story. The Wall Street Journal has done a big spread on it; Bloomberg has covered it extensively as well. Bill Miller, the legendary stock picker at Legg Mason Capital …