It wasn’t so long ago that rivers of bicycle commuters coursed through Chinese cities. As a means of navigating urban roads, two wheels couldn’t be beat. They were cheap (and China was poor), and Chinese cities were compact enough to allow for conveyance by pedal power alone. As recently as 1986, 63 percent of Beijingers used a bike as …

  The minutes of the September meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee released Wednesday explained why three Fed board members had dissented from the majority’s “close call” decision to keep rates unchanged. The highly anticipated transcript provides insights into internal and external developments, illustrating the “unusual uncertainty” that policy makers must contend with. The transcript is an important …

  Why did the incomes of top earners rise so much after 1980? One reason was the boom in asset markets, which increased capital income from stocks and housing. But much of the gain was because the rich earned a lot more in salaries, bonuses and other labor income. To cite a well-known example, chief executive officers in the late …