News

A push to expand rent control in California is sending a chill through the state’s apartment industry, prompting more investors to sell properties or hold off on buying.

House Republicans are brawling over immigration again, and it could scuttle their farm bill. Most of the public debate focuses on the so-called Dreamers. But another big problem receiving less media attention is that the immigration restrictionists are detached from the reality of the American farm economy and a worker shortage that’s driving food production […]

More than 50 million Americans in low-income working families struggle to manage everyday cash flow. That means they have the resources to pay monthly bills but can’t handle small financial shocks or timing mismatches because they lack the savings buffer the more affluent take for granted. Most lack access to reasonably priced credit and can’t […]

Last year California’s homeless population jumped 13.7%, compared with 3.6% in New York and 1% nationwide, according to an annual survey by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Most homeless people around the country live in emergency shelters or public transitional housing. But in California they camp outside in public spaces. People who once […]

Homeowners with solar panels also benefit from the state’s net metering subsidy, which compensates them for the excess power they produce and remit to the grid at the retail rather than wholesale rate. Yet California sometimes produces so much solar power that it has to pay Arizona to take it to avoid overloading power lines. […]

The U.S. recycling industry is breaking down. Prices for scrap paper and plastic have collapsed, leading local officials across the country to charge residents more to collect recyclables and send some to landfills. Used newspapers, cardboard boxes and plastic bottles are piling up at plants that can’t make a profit processing them for export or […]

At least three panel companies have announced manufacturing plans in the U.S. in recent months. China’s JinkoSolar Holding Co. is opening a factory in Jacksonville, Fla. SunPower Corp. has agreed to acquire struggling panel maker SolarWorld Americas Inc. First Solar Inc. plans to open a new factory in Ohio, where it already has some panel-making […]

Average hourly pay for private-sector workers, adjusted for inflation, was flat in April from a month earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. Average weekly earnings, also taking into account inflation, fell 0.1% last month. From a year earlier, real average hourly earnings for private-industry employees edged up just 0.2% in April. In 2015, hourly earnings […]

Slightly higher pump prices aren’t leading consumers to more efficient cars, however, and lower interest in cars such as the Ford Fusion or Nissan Altima is pulling down the broader market. Sales of the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord tumbled 5% and 19%, respectively, in April. Both models were redesigned recently. Sales of SUVs and […]

The U.S. trade gap narrowed sharply in March, partly reversing a widening in the deficit that followed hurricane-related disruptions late last summer. The international-trade deficit in goods and services shrank 15.2% from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted $48.96 billion in March, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal […]

Unemployment in the U.S. has fallen to one of the lowest levels of the post-World War II era, the result of a historically long jobs expansion that shows little evidence of slowing. The jobless rate fell to 3.9% in April from 4.1% a month earlier, hitting the lowest level since December 2000, the Labor Department […]

Rising wages, loosening credit standards and demographic shifts are all creating momentum for owning rather than renting. The homeownership rate rose from the prior year for the fifth consecutive quarter in 2018, according to U.S. Census data released Thursday. It held steady at 64.2%, unchanged from the prior quarter and its highest level since 2014. […]

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level since 1969, the latest sign the labor market is firming after years of steady job growth. Initial jobless claims, a measure of layoffs across the U.S., fell 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 209,000 in the week through April 21, the Labor Department […]

U.S. economic growth slowed in the first quarter, largely the result of a deceleration in consumer spending that hit even though tax cuts fattened the wallets of many American households. Gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S., adjusted for inflation—rose at an annual rate of 2.3% for the months […]

Half the results published in peer-reviewed scientific journals are probably wrong. John Ioannidis, now a professor of medicine at Stanford, made headlines with that claim in 2005. Since then, researchers have confirmed his skepticism by trying—and often failing—to reproduce many influential journal articles. Slowly, scientists are internalizing the lessons of this irreproducibility crisis. But what […]