The entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley are undoubtedly finding many ways to make the world a better place — with tunnels, flying cars, interplanetary travel. Yet I can’t help noticing a growing divide between the problems people have and the problems tech companies are willing or able to solve. This divide has two sources. The first is related to inequality: When ...

Despite record highs in the markets, bad news about consumers has been relentless: malls are closing; consumers have accumulated too much debt; incomes are stagnant. None of this bodes well for future consumer spending and economic growth. This is the established narrative — fairly straightforward, based on well-understood data. I suspect it is also wrong. What if something else entirely ...

Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. is taking over Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s robot dreams, buying Boston Dynamics to pursue a future when more machines intermingle with humans. As part of the transaction with Alphabet, SoftBank also agreed to buy Japanese bipedal robotics company Schaft. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Boston Dynamics, bought by Google in 2013 as part of a ...