Data is the raw material we use as the basis for analysis. Investors demand it. Baseball fans love it. Quants live for it. Pollsters depend on it. Data is the difference between anecdote and evidence, between opinion and facts, between life and death (ask a surgeon or airline pilot). Data drives the economic world around us. It is how …

  By speeding the demise of coal, which is far dirtier, cheap natural gas has done as much to reduce carbon emissions as any government regulation. But the returns are already diminishing: Natural gas also emits carbon dioxide, and this year for the first time the amount will exceed that of coal in the U.S. The most efficient way to …

  On Saturday, donors to the Global Fund pledged nearly $13billion to eradicate the three deadly maladies — AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria — by 2030. The money is expected to help save 8 million lives. The Global Fund demonstrates that collective effort and global commitment can do wonders. Since 2002, the Fund has spent $30 billion to fight the three …