If the US economy is going to prosper, it needs to keep taking in immigrants. Fertility is below replacement levels, and no country has discovered a way to raise native birthrates. That means that immigration is necessary for the survival of the Social Security system and the solvency of pension funds. Immigrants will allow small cities to grow and expand …

On one level, there’s nothing so surprising about Moody’s Investors Service’s decision to downgrade China’s sovereign debt one notch to A1. Since March last year, when the rating company and its rival S&P Global Ratings cut their outlook on the People’s Republic’s credit standing, an eventual demotion has been the most likely outcome. Still, it mustn’t have been an easy …

When Enda Kenny’s center-right Fine Gael party came to power in 2011, Ireland was dealing with the collapse of its banking system and struggling to comply with the demands of an international rescue program. Six years later, the economy is booming. Unemployment has fallen from nearly 15 percent to a little over 6 percent, and Ireland pays less to borrow …