Today, no government sees defending liberal trade as its first order of business. More urgent matters demand attention. But trade is no sideshow. If governments fail to shape a stronger trade system, and defend it to their voters, a reversal of globalisation is possible. That could end up causing more long-term economic damage than any other consequence of the coronavirus ...

Each virus has its unique pattern of spread, and scientists are starting to get a handle on how the novel coronavirus behaves. This understanding is making it possible to rank the risks of different activities from high to low to trivial. The most informative studies show how the disease is spreading in the real world — a big advance over ...

The coronavirus pandemic is likely to bring about many deep, long-lasting changes in US society and the economy. It’s difficult to predict what most of those will be. Unfortunately, one likely possibility is that college towns will suffer. For the past few decades, college towns have been a pillar of the economy. Universities draw in lots of educated workers, in ...