The catastrophe at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant not only affected people directly in Fukushima Prefecture but also harmed the local economy. Sales of products from the prefecture have suffered, and tourist spots have lost business, because of rumors or misinformation about radioactive contamination.To help increase consumers’ understanding of the local situation, Iwaki City on Nov. 16 started providing radiation measurement data on its agricultural and fishery product

HSBC Holdings got caught laundering money for drug cartels. It did business with customers linked to Iran and other nations that were off-limits because of U.S. sanctions. For the third time in a decade, investigators found the London-based bank’s compliance practices were a sham. The company did not dispute the allegations. It agreed to pay a record $1.9 billion to the U.S.Yet under the deal reached with federal prosecutors, HSBC as a firm avoids criminal charges.Is that the right decision? In

Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, wants the Federal Reserve to be single-minded. In 1977, Congress required the central bank to serve three masters: It is supposed to promote stable prices, maximum employment and moderate long-term interest rates. Brady, who will be chairman of the Joint Economic Committee in the new Congress, wants to eliminate those last two missions. His “Sound Dollar Act” would make the Fed responsible for price stability, period. The congressman believes that

U.S. President Barack Obama was right when he said after the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre that America had not done enough to keep its children safe. He closed his comments by reading the names of the 20 first-graders killed in the slaughter. Newtown’s story turns up one more child who may have been, in one way, failed by America: The isolated, awkward boy who would become the 20-year-old killer, Adam Lanza. What, precisely, afflicted Lanza is not yet known. His brutal final act, however, sugg

“A modest man,” Winston Churchill supposedly quipped about Clement Attlee, his successor as prime minister, “but then he has so much to be modest about.” We should say the same about economists, particularly their ability to forecast anything in a useful and timely manner. Those predicting an imminent American economic decline have usually been no exception. This time, though, they may be on to something. Prevailing arguments about when the era of U.S. dominance would end, and which country woul

Americans have known for years both the broad outlines and some of the disgusting details of the George W. Bush administration’s policy of subjecting suspected terrorists to torture, humiliation and imprisonment at “black sites” in foreign countries. But they have been denied a comprehensive accounting of how the United States decided after the 9/11 attacks to travel to what then Vice President Dick Cheney called “the dark side.”That would change if the Senate Intelligence Committee released to

North Korea’s first successful rocket launch is a truly dangerous development. Although the North Koreans have previously detonated two nuclear devices, until now they have not demonstrated any ability to deliver them. Weaponizing a missile is hard, but Pyongyang’s close ally Iran has made great advances in miniaturizing warheads. With the combination of North Korea’s nuclear bombs and Iran’s technology, a nuclear-tipped missile could be capable of striking the West Coast of the United States in