Opinion

  If there’s one thing economists tend to agree on, it’s the benefits of free movement of labor. Lowering barriers to immigration has the power to add up to $90 trillion a year to the global economy, doubling global gross domestic product and dwarfing the impact of reducing barriers to trade and capital flows. Not only does immigration boost the ...

  Decades from now, when historians look back on 2016, they’ll of course take note of the momentous votes on both sides of the Atlantic. But if they’re interested in symbolism, they might find that an even more profound turning point occurred over the English countryside in early December, when a little flying robot buzzed though the air, alighted on ...

  South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who was impeached after a corruption scandal, rejected on Sunday the accusations that she conspired with a longtime friend to extort money and favours from companies. Park denied that her jailed friend, Choi Soon-sil, influenced government decisions. She also vehemently refuted allegations that her administration blacklisted thousands of artists for their political beliefs. It ...

  The US is a place where the big things — health care, infrastructure and asset management to name a few — just cost too much. Price transparency is an underrated tool for bringing down those costs. In economics classes, we teach something called the law of one price — the cost of the same good or service shouldn’t be ...

  Each December, China’s leaders meet to lay out their economic agenda for the next year. And each December, China-watchers pore over their every word, much like Kremlinologists during the Cold War. It bears remembering that these pronouncements are rarely predictive, and that the best sources of insight on China’s economy are usually found elsewhere. Here are a few key ...

  Does the current interest in “fact-checking” and action to deal with “fake news” serve the cause of better politics? You might think it would, or at least that it couldn’t hurt. I’m skeptical. The main problem is that teams such as FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and the Washington Post’s Fact Checker don’t always do what they say. Often they aren’t checking ...

For America, 2016 was a dark year. The country was still at war. Our election was a brutal grudge match that left us more polarized than ever. Our closest allies were rocked by terrorism and turmoil. Adversaries toyed with our politics. Even the basic facts about life and science seemed to be in dispute. However you voted, this was a ...

  What do retailers want? Apparently, new Chief Financial Officers (CFO). Neiman Marcus Group Inc. is on the hunt for a new CFO. So are Kohl’s Corp., Coach Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. Whole Foods Market Inc.’s CFO of 29 years — and the longest-serving female CFO in the Fortune 500 — will be leaving next year. In fact, the finance ...

  President Barack Obama’s imposition of sweeping new sanctions against Russian spies is long overdue, risky and tarnished by political calculation. It is also the right thing to do. The Obama administration expelled 35 suspected spies and their families out of the country; sanction two intelligence agencies, four intelligence officers, three companies and two alleged hackers; shut two compounds used ...

  A gunman opened fire at a crowded nightclub in Istanbul during New Year celebrations. The assailant, armed with long-barrelled weapon and wearing Santa Claus costume, first killed a cop and a civilian outside the club. Then the attacker rained bullets mercilessly on innocent people partying inside the club. It left 39 people dead. The man is still on the ...