Covid-19 exposed all the flaws of both national and international governance. The World Health Organization struggled. Too many countries, even those supposedly best prepared for a pandemic, flailed and failed to grasp lessons from each other’s experiences, at the cost of 2 million lives and trillions of dollars. Has the world rectified those weaknesses? A vaccination campaign of record size ...

When Ford Motor Company announced it was shuttering its operations in Brazil, the reaction was swift and shrill. Adversaries of President Jair Bolsonaro were quick to blame official neglect and ineptitude, to the delight of cartoonists and social media warriors. Bolsonaro faulted decades of dirigisme and accused Ford of plumping for subsidies, even as the Economy Ministry scolded the automaker ...

Consumers didn’t end 2020 with a bang, Commerce Department retail sales figures show. But the unusual dynamics of a year defined by the pandemic — which gave rise to trends such as shoppers buying Christmas gifts earlier and shifting their spending from experiences to goods — meant a December pullback didn’t stop the retail industry from enjoying a solid holiday ...