As a new decade begins, I see five big questions facing macroeconomists, which I’ve listed in a roughly increasing order of difficulty. Why not make full use of our productive resources? Inflation has been stuck below the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% for much of the past decade. It is expected to remain low for at least another year or ...

The Houdini-esque escape by Carlos Ghosn from his court-monitored Tokyo residence may be shrouded in intrigue, but one thing has been left in plain sight: A turnaround at Nissan Motor Co. won’t happen any time soon. Whatever he has to say from his refuge in Lebanon will be largely inconsequential for the Japanese car company. Nissan is in a state ...

The past decade hasn’t done much to inspire optimism about the future of the planet. Emissions from burning fossil fuels and land-use changes since the start of 2010 have been equivalent to about 407 billion tons of carbon dioxide. About one-sixth of all carbon emissions in human history happened in the past decade alone. Doom Loop Depending on the estimates ...