There’s a standard playbook for reviving cities by turning them into technology clusters. But not every town can become the next Silicon Valley, or Robot City, or biotech mecca. Minneapolis has shown that there is another way. Cities such as Raleigh, San Diego and Pittsburgh have all followed a similar model: Build around a top-ranked research university; bring together elites ...

Corporations warned last week that if the Trump administration imposed tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, consumers would pay the price. That’s wishful thinking in the C-suite. Toyota said tariffs “would substantially raise costs and therefore prices of cars and trucks sold in America.” Higher costs are undebatable. But can Toyota actually raise prices? That gets to the challenge ...

A top German court in Leipzig ruled that cities have the right to ban diesel cars. Though the incoming coalition government has vowed to avoid such bans, the ruling is a deadly blow for diesel engines in Germany, an event on a par with the country’s 2011 decision to phase out nuclear power plants. From now on, buying a diesel ...