Michael R. Bloomberg / Joe Biden One of the most frightening words a patient can hear from a doctor is “cancer.” We know it from the experience of our families and friends, and the millions of Americans who hear it directly from their doctors each year. In President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address, he compared the effort ...

Inequality is, without a doubt, the hot topic in econ circles these days. Economics conference seminars on the subject are standing-room-only. Columns and blog posts about inequality are widely read and discussed, and Thomas Piketty’s book was a bestseller. But the question of how best to measure the phenomenon continues to be a contentious topic of debate. The most common ...

BLOOMBERG Stocks jumped around the world after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reasserted the central bank’s gradual approach to raising interest rates. Commodities climbed as the dollar extended its worst month in more than five years. Yellen’s signal that weakening world growth calls for a slow approach to tightening policy ignited gains for shares from Shanghai to Frankfurt after U.S. ...