It is a truth universally acknowledged that education is the key to economic success. Everyone knows that the jobs of the future will require ever higher levels of skill. That’s why, in an appearance Friday with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President Obama declared that “If we want more good...

Bernard L. Madoff said he never thought the collapse of his Ponzi scheme would cause the sort of destruction that has befallen his family. In his first interview for publication since his arrest in December 2008, Mr. Madoff — looking noticeably thinner and rumpled in khaki prison garb — maintained...

Talk about a takeover with a twist: few would believe that a debt-heavy construction conglomerate that relies on the stagnating Spanish economy for most of its revenue could take over a 137-year-old, cash-rich German blue chip. But such is the intent of Grupo A.C.S., a Spanish construction and building...

THE euro has been good for German exporters, and seems likely to get even better in the coming year. It has also been good for the Netherlands, which was the fourth-largest exporter in the euro zone in 2000 and now ranks second. But France and Italy suffered during the last decade as their shares...

The trustee seeking to recover funds for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme sued JPMorganChase on Thursday for $6.4 billion, accusing it of profiting from the huge fraud in its role as the primary banker for Mr. Madoff’s investment company. The lawsuit, filed in federal bankruptcy...

Even as Europe struggles to contain its latest debt crisis, fresh fissures are emerging that show the euro zone diverging into two — or even three — different economic parts that threaten to compound the problems even further. After publication of new figures Monday, a senior European Union official...

There are no one-handed push-ups or headstands on the yoga mat for Gordon Murray anymore. No more playing bridge, either — he jokingly accuses his brain surgeon of robbing him of the gray matter that contained all the bidding strategy. But when Mr. Murray, a former bond salesman for Goldman Sachs...

In January 1973, William Ruckelhaus, the administrator of the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency, traveled to Los Angeles to break the bad news to residents: They were going to have to drive less. Automobile smog was choking the city, in stark violation of the Clean Air Act, and the EPA...

When interest rates soared last week on Irish government bonds, it served as a grim warning to other indebted nations of how difficult and even politically ruinous it could be to roll back decades of public sector largess. An Irish bond market already in free fall plunged further after Ireland announced...

The Federal Reserve is preparing to put its credibility on the line as it rarely has before by taking dramatic new action this week to try jolting the economy out of its slumber. If the efforts succeed, they could finally help bring down the stubbornly high jobless rate. But should the Fed overshoot...