When North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile this week — what its boy tyrant called a ‘gift to the American bastards’ — the response from the Trump administration was fairly conventional. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson correctly called it an escalation. He announced America’s intention to bring the matter before the UN Security Council. And he assured, “We will …

A taxi company that owns no cars. A media titan that creates no content. A retailer with no stores. A couple of years ago, this was the view of Uber, Facebook and Amazon: growing powerhouses even though they consisted of little more than software engineers and data centers (and, in Amazon’s case, a back room with no storefront). Perhaps the …

As technology changes, a country’s industrial mix changes. A century and a half ago, most Americans — and indeed, most human beings — worked on farms. Today almost nobody does. Nowadays, a substantial number of Americans work in retail, ringing up purchases, stocking shelves or helping customers find what they need. But in a decade or two, it’s anyone’s guess …