A funny thing happened on the path to disruption. This decade, most of Silicon Valley’s big societal claims have turned out to be wrong. These claims arguably began around the time this cycle’s real expansion began, in late 2011. Two scholars’ 2011 text, “Race Against the Machine,” looked at some of the problems plaguing the U.S. economy —stagnant wage …

  Pankaj Mishra Africa is “rising,” or so authoritative sources declared a few years ago. An Economist cover story in 2013 amplified the claim; the Wall Street Journal carried a series of articles on economic growth in Africa under this title. African “lions,” according to a report published as recently as September by the McKinsey Global Institute, are “on the …

Bloomberg British Airways owner IAG SA said it’s reviewing outstanding orders for the latest Boeing Co. and Airbus Group SE wide-body jets while keeping older planes for longer and adding more seats to others in a bid to pare spending as overcapacity and the UK’s Brexit vote weigh on earnings. Plans to take 38 Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s are …