Opinion

  Although America’s political system seems unable to stimulate robust, sustained economic growth, it at least is stimulating consumption of a small but important segment of literature. Dystopian novels are selling briskly — Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here (1935), George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949), Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and ...

  When a cloud-storage malfunction at Amazon Inc. temporarily knocked out services including Netflix, Slack, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website, “smart” thermostats and my email server, it demonstrated how much we’ve all come to depend on one company’s infrastructure. It also shows how the centralization of data has made the internet — at least the part that most of ...

  “I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office to serve American victims,” President Donald Trump said in his address to Congress Tuesday night. He was referring to a very specific kind of victim — those harmed by undocumented immigrants. And his comments show that, current conventional wisdom notwithstanding, President Trump is not so different from ...

  British Prime Minster Theresa May is facing political fights not only in Brussels over Brexit, at home, she’s bracing for Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to call a second referendum on independence. In 2014, Scotland rejected independence from UK by 55-to-45 votes. But the recent survey shows that margin is narrowing. Only 51 percent of Scots favour to stay ...

  Being the fastest-growing large economy in the world is India’s destiny, and even the most poorly conceived economic policy imaginable can’t stop destiny. At least, that is, if you believe the government’s statisticians, who said on Tuesday that India’s GDP grew at 7% in the very quarter that the government withdrew high-value currency notes from circulation. Is India becoming ...

  When making a decision such as whether to hire, insure or lend to someone, is more data better? Actually, when it comes to fairness, the opposite is often true. Consider a recent Harvard Business Review experiment, which involved sending 316 fake applications to the largest U.S. law firms. All the applicants were among the top 1 percent of students ...

  Beijing had the best of intentions when it started to promote all-electric taxis in 2011. Not only would the green cars reduce the city’s choking pollution, but they’d highlight its commitment to becoming a center of innovation. There was just one problem: cold weather. Electric cars lose their charge quickly when temperatures drop, reducing their range, utility and — ...

  The same may be true of the economy. So says Tyler Cowen, author of the new book “The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream.” Although we’ve recovered from the Great Recession, there are widespread fears that the economy will stagnate or grow only slowly. Government won’t be able to handle the next crisis, whether a war, ...

  If you want an example of the threat faced by the U.S. from an emerging China, look no further than Xiaomi Corp. The electronics manufacturer has made the bold move into designing its own smartphone chips. Of the vast variety of semiconductors that reach the market every year, it’s those processors used in mobile phones that are among the ...

  National security adviser is not a position requiring congressional approval. But because President Donald Trump’s new choice to fill the job, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, wants to continue as a high-ranking active-duty officer, the Senate needs to approve his appointment. It should use the opportunity to hold a hearing and invite McMaster to elaborate on his vision of the ...