Opinion

  Wall Street Journal reporter Maria Abi-Habib made waves in journalistic circles last month after she posted on Facebook that Department of Homeland Security officials tried to seize her phones as she entered the U.S. at Los Angeles International Airport. What was striking about her post was that Homeland Security’s demand (which it eventually gave up) was probably lawful and …

  The newly discovered planet Proxima b is about to change the focus of astronomy for decades to come —and maybe longer, if it reveals signs of life. The planet, some 25 trillion miles away from our own, is like a twin to Earth, but one separated at birth and living a very different kind of life. The discovery, which …

  For a few decades, economists used to imagine how the world works, write down a theory describing their idea, and call it a day. If some statisticians came along and found some support for the theory, well, great! But usually they didn’t, and that was fine too. As one old joke put it, if an idea worked in practice, …

  Call it the Snooze Economy. Roughly two months before the presidential election, the economy has turned both boring and mystifying. It hardly impresses anyone, and yet this plodding performance is probably helping Hillary Clinton by minimizing bad economic news. More important: The lackluster expansion, if continued for a few more years, would represent an enormous achievement. It would finally …

  Let’s talk today about compliance in the financial industry. This topic seems to come up a lot lately. I hear complaints from brokers on the sell side, most of whom don’t have kind words to say about their main regulatory overseer, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority — even though it’s supposedly in the pocket of the financial industry. I …

  The best way to describe China’s economic quandary is also the simplest: It can strive for maximum growth now or later — but not both. China’s government is well aware that promoting the growth of the world’s largest economy in the long term involves structural changes that will slow the economy in the short term. And its success in …

  Venezuela’s crushing economic and political crisis is spiralling out of control. Widespread food and medicine crunch, 700% inflation, abysmal recession, corruption and crime have put the country on the edge of a virtual collapse. The recall vote to unseat President Nicolas Maduro is also facing bureaucratic bottlenecks. The ruling party has been accused of creating a climate of intimidation …

  When Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into law, the outrage from the left was incandescent. Peter Edelman, a prominent official in Health and Human Services, resigned in protest and wrote an article for the Atlantic calling it “The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done” and declaring that “it will hurt millions of poor children by the time it is …

  The Department of Justice announced last week that it would end its reliance on for-profit prisons run by companies such as Corrections Corporation of America and Geo Group. The decision followed an internal study, which found that private prisons tended to be less safe and poorly administered, and provided limited long-term savings for the federal government. Shares of CCA …

  To appreciate what’s at stake for the world in this year’s U.S. presidential election, it’s useful to visit a place like Australia that has been one of our most faithful allies — and that appears to be mortified at what’s happening in American politics. Australians are polite, in their own rowdy way. And they know they have to live …