The unemployment rate is down to 4.6 percent, which sounds pretty good. But the unemployment rate doesn’t count people who’ve given up looking for jobs, which is why the employment-to-population ratio, especially the “prime-age” ratio for those 25 through 54, may be a better measure of the health of the labour market. After I wrote about this metric, several …

  If only congressional Republicans were as confident in their ideas for replacing Obamacare as they are in their plans to repeal it. Then maybe the quick strike against the law that they have scheduled for the new year would be accompanied by a constructive debate about the vast yet troubled federal program that tens of millions of Americans have …

  The Pentagon has accused China of seizing an unmanned naval probe in international waters in the South China Sea. The incident can stoke tensions around Beijing military presence in the disputed area. Reports that emerged after the incident said that the underwater vehicle was taken around 50 nautical miles (90 kilometers) northwest off Subic Bay in the Philippines. The …