It’s 2018 and much of the world is still trying to justify why fathers matter.　The US doesn’t federally mandate parental leave of any sort, bracketing it with countries such as Suriname and Papua New Guinea. Large swaths of Asia including India and China have policies only for maternity leave. New Zealand is the sole country with a primary caregiver policy that applies to mothers and fathers.　Ironically, even when time-off policies for fathers are in place, they may mean little in practice. Japa

The plunge of Facebook and Twitter shares in the last two days shows that both companies are hostages to investors’ unrealistic perceptions of how quickly they should grow even as they purge bots and trolls. Moving to eliminate all fake and malicious accounts, as well as making new ones very hard to register, would be scary given these inflated expectations.　Facebook fell 19 percent Thursday after its quarterly earnings announcement, in part because it missed revenue expectations, but also becau

Of all America’s major cities, Chicago may be unique. The rest of the nation -- particularly newer, faster-growing cities -- should pay close attention to its evolution, because the future of America looks a lot like Chicago.　While Chicago has a vibrant core, it’s not as dauntingly expensive as New York or San Francisco. Chicago lacks the population growth that Sun Belt metros like Houston and Atlanta have, but it is no symbol of Rust Belt decline like Detroit has been. How did it achieve this r

Productivity growth in developed countries has been slowing down, threatening to cause a long-term stagnation in living standards. One contributing factor could be that it’s getting more expensive to find new scientific and technological ideas. Economists Nicholas Bloom, Charles I. Jones, John Van Reenen and Michael Webb recently tried to measure innovation in various fields, and found that more and more researchers were needed to produce the same pace of discovery.　That’s an ominous trend. Gove

The “aize slingback kitten heels” ($125) and the “starburst dress” ($128) wont be available much longer. The “ketty sandals” ($99), the “lapis stud earrings” ($25) and the discounted ($109) “classic blazer” will also go to the fashion graveyard. That’s because Ivanka Trump has decided to shutter her namesake apparel and accessories business, about 18 months after her father’s inauguration made her an influential White House figure and globetrotting quasi-diplomat.　The New York Post and the Wall

Trump’s latest tweet telling Iran it would suffer “consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before” is an almost-verbatim rehash of his August 2017 threat to North Korea; then, Trump promised “fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.” It’s about as serious this time around, but there’s more bad blood behind Trump’s deployment of all caps against Iran.　Trump’s tweet is a response to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s speec

This weekend a beleaguered Argentina hosted the G-20 finance ministers to work out the agenda for their leaders’ December conclave in Buenos Aires. While officially focused on infrastructure and the future of work, these more technical discussions were overshadowed by US tariff threats and President Donald Trump’s belligerence toward allies and the World Trade Organization.　The US attack on the global trading system comes as Latin America is finally embracing free trade. In a resurgence of marke

The American left has a lot on its plate -- universal health care, climate change, stagnant wages, wealth inequality and more. But there’s one more issue that needs to be added to the list: environmental justice. Poor Americans, especially minorities, are exposed to too many toxins and environmental hazards, destroying their health and harming their opportunities for advancement.　One of the worst hazards is lead. There is now good evidence that banning leaded gasoline contributed to significant

When Forbes put Kylie Jenner on the cover of its latest issue and declared her one of the “60 richest self-made women,” the magazine seemed to think it was telling a simple, inspiring tale: About how the youngest child of America’s reality TV royal family, the Kardashians, became an almost-billionaire cosmetics mogul before the age of 21. But the meaning of the story was in the politics of the beholder.　There are two basic ways to read the cover. The first is that there are more bootstrapping en