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In Michael Winterbottom and Russell Brand's documentary, "The Emperor's New Clothes," the Hans Christian Andersen classic becomes an allegory for economic injustice: It proposes that the weavers from the bedtime story are analogous to today's bankers, bond dealers, traders and hedge-fund managers....

There has recently been quite a bit of discussion concerning the growth of economic inequality. The size of the gap between the economic resources of those who have more money and those who have less has been increasing rapidly. This development is regarded by many people as deplorable. In a recent...

The Federal Reserve helped pull the U.S. economy out of the deep recession of 2007-09 with its aggressive efforts to lower the cost of borrowing money. At some point, however, the Fed has to reverse course and push interest rates higher, or else it risks fueling inflation or inflating another asset...

As central bank governors, Federal Reserve officials, economists and reporters convene for the annual economic policy retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyo., this weekend, the question on everyone's mind is: Will the Fed raise interest rates come September? The answer should clearly be "no." The preponderance...

Jessica Mah has been starting companies since she was 13. As a teenager, she built websites for small businesses, then created a company that managed online services for companies. It was pulling in $100,000 in revenue before she was even in high school, Mah said. So after finishing an undergraduate...

WASHINGTON — The recovery from the Great Recession has generated solid stretches of economic growth and job creation, but has failed to impress Federal Reserve policymakers enough to provide a key validation of the economy's strength — an interest rate increase. That is poised to change as central...

You know that old joke about how to tell when a politician is lying? Along those lines, here's how to tell when politicians are looking for a way to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership without looking like a protectionist or a captive of organized labor: They say the magic words "currency manipulation."...

U.S. stock indexes closed slightly lower Wednesday, stabilizing a day after their biggest sell-off in two months. With no obvious catalyst pushing them either way, the major indexes spent most of the day wavering between slight gains and losses. Investors are waiting for clues from a Federal Reserve...

The seventh year of the U.S. bull market is off to a rocky start. U.S. stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, wiping out this year's gains for the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Investors are nervous about the likelihood of the first increase in U.S. interest rates in...

The European Central Bank announced a huge monetary stimulus plan designed to boost the region's sagging economy and fend off the specter of deflation. At a packed news conference streamed online from the ECB's headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, the central bank's president, Mario Draghi, said...

Mario Draghi led the European Central Bank into a new era with an historic pledge to buy government bonds as part of an asset-purchase program worth about 1.1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion). The ECB president side-stepped German-led opposition to quantitative easing in a once-and-for-all push to...

Mario Draghi has proposed spending as much as $1.3 trillion as the European Central Bank seeks to revive inflation in the euro area. The ECB president and his Executive Board recommended asset purchases of 50 billion euros a month until December 2016, according to two euro-area central-bank officials....

If you've been thinking about taking a European vacation, it's almost time to book those tickets. (Well, as long as you weren't planning on going to Switzerland). That's because the euro is falling so fast against the dollar — down to $1.15 per euro, from a high of $1.45 a few years ago — that...

The Swiss National Bank unexpectedly scrapped its three-year policy of capping the Swiss franc against the euro in a U-turn that may change the perception of a century-old institution known for reliability. In a surprise statement that sent shockwaves through equities and currency markets, the...

To the editor: For working-class people in America's most unaffordable rental market, raising the minimum wage helps, as will plans to upgrade public transportation. But housing prices growing four times faster than income levels since 2000 is clearly not a case of demand chasing supply. Population...

For the fourth time in 12 years, the world is facing a deflation scare. And as with any good horror movie, no one is sure what lurks in the shadows. Since summer, slowing growth in China and severe weakness in Europe and Japan have deepened fears that the global economy could tip into deflation...

The Federal Reserve said Friday it made a record $98.7 billion in profits last year, mostly from interest on the more than $4 trillion in bonds it has purchased since 2008 to stimulate the economy. The money, which goes to the U.S. Treasury, is a silver lining to the central bank's unprecedented...

The dollar is still king at the start of 2015, hitting a nine-year peak as the U.S. economy continues to improve while other nations struggle. An index measuring the greenback against a basket of currencies, including the euro and the Japanese yen, reached 91.16 on Friday — the highest level since...

The euro slid to a 4-1/2 year low against the dollar Friday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi indicated the bank could soon back a government bond-buying program to deal with alarmingly low inflation across the 19-nation eurozone. The currency's latest foray toward $1.20 was triggered...

It's arguably his most well-worn joke. President Obama loves to thank supporters who knew him when his hair was more pepper than salt. His driver's license photo is the evidence, he joked at a polling booth this fall. Sometimes he blames his daughters. But don't worry, he reassures audiences, "Every...