Opinion

When research firm GlobalData surveyed Americans on which stores they were most looking forward to visiting once the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, one household name came out near the bottom, and well below its department-store peers: JC Penney. That helps to explain the news that the retailer — which began life in 1902 as a store called The Golden Rule — ...

There are reasons to be optimistic about corporate America getting more comfortable with work-from-home arrangements brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Workers gain more flexibility around their working and living arrangements. Both companies and workers stand to save money by relying less on high-cost real estate. If it results in no loss of productivity, what’s not to like? But as ...

The great “flu” pandemic of 1889 started in Russia, infecting more than half the inhabitants of Saint Petersburg, then spread rapidly through Europe. Its victims included Prince Albert Victor, the grandson of Queen Victoria. Americans felt safe for a few months — until the first infections appeared in New York, and rail travel quickly spread it to other cities across ...

Here’s a fact that ought to startle every American who assumes that because we spend nearly a trillion dollars a year on defense, we have primacy over our emerging rival, China. “Over the past decade, in US war games against China, the United States has a nearly perfect record: We have lost almost every single time.” That’s a quote from ...

Just as some US states begin to reopen and try to mend the virus-stricken economy, Warren Buffett delivered a harsh reminder that things may be anything but normal for a long time. The crisis has spooked America’s forever optimist so much so that he’s fled the airline industry entirely, and now even certain automobile and banking stocks, according to a ...

Universal basic income (UBI) was a popular topic in the US before Covid-19 — in a theoretical sense. Now a pandemic is providing a tragic preview of some of the conditions UBI was conceived to address. And, though there are some important qualifications, Covid-19 is making UBI look better. Up until a few months ago, the argument for UBI was ...

The world’s tourism hot spots are gradually reopening after the great lockdown, but they don’t look very alluring. Going to the beach will require spacing out parasols, while a city break in Europe might mean keeping a mask on while shopping. Not to mention the quarantines being imposed to limit imported infections, hardly a great way to start a vacation. ...

The table around which the Supreme Court justices gather for conferences might groan on Friday beneath the weight of cert petitions — requests for the court to accept 11 cases arising from lower court decisions involving plaintiffs seeking redress for violations of their civil rights. In 10 of the cases — in all but one, the government defendants were in ...

It takes economics students a couple of classes to understand why price caps are generally a bad idea. The Italian government has nonetheless chosen to set one for face masks — and it’s learning the lesson the hard way. The problem with picking a price that’s artificially low is that it will cause shortages. Consumers will want to buy too ...

How big is India’s anti-viral package, and how effective will it be? The flashy $265 billion figure Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his televised address wasn’t all new spending. It included the $22.5 billion of fiscal support — mainly cash payments for the poor — announced in March as the country was entering total lockdown. The central bank’s funding-for-lending ...