Opinion

This is not your father’s inflation — and that’s good news. Business cycles often end when higher inflation causes a country’s central bank (the Federal Reserve in the United States) to raise interest rates, slowing the economy and, perhaps, triggering a recession. The good news: The next recession may be delayed, because the Phillips Curve has shifted. The Phillips Curve ...

Growth is back at Xiaomi Corp. After suffering some pretty brutal quarters at the hands of compatriot competitors and a weakening global smartphone market, the Chinese startup trumpeted its return last week at an all-hands staff meeting. Shipments in the second quarter climbed 70% from the prior three-month period to 23.16 million handsets, founder Lei Jun said in a statement ...

The freedom to move in pursuit of opportunity is a basic — and constitutionally protected — American value. Yet it’s a value in decline. American workers are half as likely to relocate to another state as previous generations. Lower mobility may be one reason why job openings in the U.S. are at an all-time high. The country’s irrationally restrictive system ...

It took brave, radical thinking for President Emmanuel Macron to transform French politics so completely. Reforming the French economy will demand no less focus and ambition. To judge by the speech he gave at Versailles last week, there’ll be no lack of ambition: It was positively regal. Focus, though, was less apparent. Once he turns to the task of governing, ...

When United Airlines called security to drag passenger David Dao off of his flight back in April, some observers cheered the airline’s falling stock price, expressing the hope that this would punish the company’s executives and owners and spur them to implement a more passenger-friendly attitude. United’s stock quickly recovered. But even had it fallen a lot and not bounced ...

As Europe’s politicians digest the lessons from Italy’s recent 17 billion euro ($19.34 billion) bailout of two Venetian banks, two schools of opinion have emerged. The majority view is that the bailout, while less than ideal, at least brought greater financial stability to Italy. Italians themselves seem pleased with the outcome. So far there has been no great taxpayer outcry, ...

Do you remember the NeXT computer, the one Steve Jobs began building in 1985, after he was booted from Apple by then-chief executive John Sculley and the board? It was supposed to be a machine built for academia, the ultimate learning tool priced so that universities would be able to buy them in bulk. But Jobs being Jobs, he had ...

Some American history museums belabor visitors with this message: You shall know the truth and it shall make you feel ashamed of, but oh-so-superior to, your wretched ancestors. The new Museum of the American Revolution is better than that. Located near Independence Hall, it celebrates the luminous ideas affirmed there 241 Julys ago, but it does not flinch from this ...

Nationalism minus chauvinism. That’s how Indonesia wants to deal with FANG. Facebook, Apple, Netflix and Google—the four horsemen of the digital economy—will get to play freely in the archipelago’s 260-million-strong consumer market, according to communications and information technology minister Rudiantara. The minister, who uses only one name, has no airy-fairy notions about national digital champions who’ll help keep Indonesian money ...

Britain’s government isn’t due to announce a new budget until the autumn, but debate is already raging over public-sector pay. With Brexit bearing down, the embattled prime minister, Theresa May, will have to choose between making another embarrassing U-turn and defending a policy that is both unpopular and unnecessary. Sadly for May, the U-turn makes better sense. For years it ...