In "Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II," Pulitzer Prize finalist Arthur Herman describes how the U.S. won history’s greatest conflict by harnessing free market principles and private-sector creativity and innovation to increase war production.

College graduation rates are worse than high school graduation rates. The costs of this abysmal performance to students and taxpayers are high.

What’s important now is not to let what happened to Fishtown be ignored. For whatever reasons, the culture that used to characterize working-class America — indeed, that made working-class America the spine of America’s civic culture — has come apart. Recognizing that this has happened is the indispensable first step in figuring out what to do next.

In Freedom's Forge, bestselling author Arthur Herman takes us back to that time, revealing how two extraordinary American businessmen-automobile magnate William Knudsen and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser-helped corral, cajole, and inspire business leaders across the country to mobilize the "arsenal of democracy" that propelled the Allies to victory in World War II.

President Obama has kicked off a three-day bus tour of Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, where the corn is high and at least some factories are spewing smoke. He won these Midwestern states handily in 2008, but he's not taking anything for granted these days. To understand the political economy of the region, it helps to put it in historic perspective.

Are global corporations cleaning up their supply chains? The debate over the abysmally low wages paid to workers in emerging economies illustrates the difficulty. There are two conflicting narratives, both tied to China.

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum have finally managed to find something they agree on. Despite their many differences, they see eye to eye on the notion that the tax system should favor manufacturing over other sectors of the economy.

Thousands gathered in Moscow over the weekend to protest Russia’s falsified parliamentary election. The demonstrators gave the Kremlin a two-week ultimatum to schedule a new election, allow liberal political parties to appear on the ballot, and release opposition members detained during protests earlier in the week.