Opinion

It was an epoch-defining decision to place in Westminster Abbey, among statues of monarchs, priests and poets, a large one of James Watt, inventor of the separate-condenser steam engine. The statue’s inscription says Watt ranks among the world’s benefactors because he “increased the power of man.” The economist and historian Deirdre McCloskey believes this honor, conferred in 1834, signified society’s ...

The Indian stock market seems unstoppable. Its major indices have risen over 20 percent this year, making it one of Asia’s best performers. Indian investors have piled into more than $7.2 billion worth of stock in 2017 and foreigners have bought almost $7 billion. Yet corporate earnings have hardly recovered enough to justify such exuberance. The quarter between April and ...

Under the lax ethical standards President Donald Trump brought to the White House, rampant conflicts of interest are treated with casual indifference. This disregard has sent a message to his entire administration that blurring lines—between public and private, right and wrong—will be not just tolerated but defended. At least one cabinet member appears to have taken the message to heart. ...

No one knows how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will respond to growing pressure on his regime, other than by scouring the thesaurus. But the US and China seem to be stumbling toward a more effective strategy for confronting him. More boldness from the latter, and restraint from the former, will be necessary to see it through. New US ...

In times of market uncertainty, some investors will flock to “safeguarded” currencies such as the Swiss franc or Japanese yen. Others may choose diversifiers like gold, farmland or other hard assets. And then there are those who flock to alternative investments like bitcoin. Yet one investment that has historically been considered a safe bet, low-risk option for investors when frothy ...

Pity Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Tesco Plc and Carrefour SA. The three Western supermarket giants have plonked down hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade to expand their retail chains across India. Now Amazon.com Inc. is about to establish a larger bricks-and-mortar presence than all three combined at a cost of just $28 million. In the 95 minutes it ...

Immigration restrictionists give a number of reasons why they want fewer people settling in the US. Most of these reasons don’t hold up under scrutiny. For example, the best available data says that immigrants don’t take native-born Americans’ jobs, or drive down their wages; indeed, it’s more likely, that skilled immigrants boost the earnings of the native-born. In the US ...

At this shank end of a summer that a calmer America someday will remember with embarrassment, you must remember this: In the population of 325 million, a small sliver crouches on the wilder shores of politics, another sliver lives in the dark forest of mental disorder, and there is a substantial overlap between these slivers. At most moments, 312 million ...

Leaders from Washington to Brussels are increasingly troubled by the flood of Chinese money seeking acquisitions abroad, and asking themselves how best to respond. The answer is: more carefully. The US has a federal panel, created more than four decades ago, that scrutinizes foreign investments for national-security implications, but it isn’t adequate to the task. The European Union’s current arrangements ...

The Federal Reserve is about to take another small step toward getting US monetary policy back to normal. The only catch is that, as with politics and the economy, no one really knows what “normal” means anymore. So far, investors have viewed this unusual situation calmly, and the Fed is hoping this doesn’t change. But calm can become complacency—and that’s ...