For the U.S. college students who will be paying for a four-year bachelor’s degree long after graduation day, here’s some consolation: At least it didn’t take you six or eight years. College is expensive, yet unpredictably so. Some students pay little for degrees from elite private institutions, after tuition discounts and financial aid. Many of their peers, however, will pay far more than they expected for lower-cost universities. A big reason for this is the increasing number of years it takes

Spend a few minutes on Shapeways.com, an online marketplace, and you get a glimpse of a very odd future. You can buy mustache cuff links, a pencil topper shaped like a Roman halberd, a pixelated bust of a glowering Steve Jobs, or a set of dice modeled on the Deathly Hallows of “Harry Potter” fame. All the items are designed by the site’s users and can be manufactured by Shapeways using 3-D printing technology. And they’re all for sale. The Internet is now alive with creative physical objects lik

When Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer, Tim Cook, bragged to a U.S. Senate subcommittee this week about his company’s culture of innovation, he probably hoped people would think of Apple’s gadgets, not its tax strategies. That seems unlikely, at least for now. Apple has opened a new front in the battle between corporations that aggressively avoid U.S. taxes and lawmakers who want to collect more of them. In so doing, Apple has made the case for why Congress must update the tax code. The compa

Sony Corp.’s curt dismissal of a foreigner’s advice last week didn’t shock Michael Woodford, the former chief executive officer of Olympus Corp. “The club, meaning corporate Japan, will do everything it can to mask and hide what’s wrong. That’s what’s most important,” said Woodford, a Briton who was fired in late 2011 after he exposed a $1.7 billion accounting fraud in his own company. Woodford’s tale is worth revisiting as Sony rebuffs a proposal from hedge-fund investor Daniel Loeb for the com

In its next generation of jet engines, General Electric Co. plans to use a new, and possibly revolutionary, technology. In each engine, 19 nozzles will shoot fuel into a combustion chamber, where it mixes with compressed air. Because the fuel must be distributed precisely, the interior of a nozzle is very sophisticated: Elaborate chambers and passageways help curtail emissions, control nitrous-oxide levels and prevent temperature surges. Previously, making each nozzle required welding 20 dispara

The most effective way to address working moms’ concerns about child care is to have their companies operate an on-site nursery school, given that parents prefer day care facilities to be in the workplace.But companies are reluctant to set up nurseries for employees because of the financial costs involved. It takes about 1 billion won on average to build a day care center. On top of that, wages have to be paid to staff the centers.Furthermore, the current regulations on the operation of nursery

The district court in the industrial city of Ulsan has put the brakes on job inheritance practices at Hyundai Motor.On Thursday, the court nullified a clause in the automaker’s collective bargaining agreement that requires management to hire a relative of an employee who dies or retires due to an industrial accident, regardless of whether they have the required job skills.The court said the provision not only “intrudes on the employer’s intrinsic right to hire employees” but “defines something t

If the horrific garment factory collapse last month in Bangladesh has any silver lining, it is the response from more than 30 of the world’s leading apparel companies ― including Benetton, PVH, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M, Inditex (Zara), Marks & Spencer and Tesco ― to sign an agreement to protect the safety and lives of that nation’s workers, who make the companies’ products.The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh is a historic advance over the voluntary private factory monitoring tha

Addressing the scandal exposed at the Internal Revenue Service last week, President Barack Obama announced the resignation of the agency’s acting commissioner, adding: “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again.” Ideally, the scandal will lead to reform of the vague rules that govern political groups. It will also lead Congress to end the practice of anonymous donations to political causes, which is at the heart of the controversy. Are you sufficiently naive to