Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp is ripping up its debt-fuelled, $30 billion-a-year plan to rebuild an aging worldwide portfolio after cash flow evaporated and threatened the company’s vaunted dividend. The shift by the Western world’s premier oil explorer represents an about-face after more than two years of doing pretty much the opposite of the its biggest rivals, who have been shrinking ...

When Margaret Fuller, one of 19th century America’s public intellectuals, grandly proclaimed, “I accept the universe,” Thomas Carlyle, the British historian, reportedly said, “By gad, she’d better.” In 21st-century America, people worry about whether President Donald Trump will “accept” defeat in the election. He’d better. Dignified comportment is not his strong suit, but surely he cannot equably contemplate being frogmarched ...

Intellectual property (IP) is a convenient fiction. It is a right enforced by state power and international agreements, one that’s even more fragile than other forms of property rights since it’s not tangible. We choose to believe this fiction because we also believe that intellectual property adds to general welfare. It permits innovation and growth, and supports writers, artists, inventors ...