Five events from the previous year hold clues to what lies ahead for energy, technology and finance. Electric buses just keep on going: The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has amassed a total of 16,359 electric buses, making its fleet bigger than the six largest North American combustion-bus fleets. Cities keep a close eye on their vehicle fleets: The Lion ...

Can a relatively low-tax country run a high-quality, taxpayer-funded health service that’s free to all? Britain’s National Health Service suggests the answer is no. The NHS is good at some things but bad, bordering on disastrous, at others. Its great virtue is truly universal coverage, no questions asked — and by international standards, the system is also cheap to run. ...

The opening scene of “The Karate Kid” left a big impression on me. A struggling, working-class single mom in New Jersey packs her family and all of her worldly possessions into a green station wagon and heads west to California in search of a better life. As a child who had only ever known one town, I was astonished by ...