WSJ.com 'Intelligent Investor' columnist Jason Zweig pulls up a chair on Mean Street to explain how J.P. Morgan violated a simply rule in its $2 billion trading loss: You must not fool yourself. Photo: ...

It's been a scary few years for the housing market. But at some point, the nightmare has to end (please?). Is now the time? Should first-time home buyers consider jumping into the market? After all, home ...

Retailers are trying to make smartphones work for them instead of against them. Take Maurices. The women's clothing chain last month started sending promotions to the phones of people who come within a ...

In March, Mark Morrison says he was offered a 4.63% rate by his mortgage company, Ally Financial Inc., when he asked about refinancing. That would have resulted in monthly savings of just $87, before figuring ...

The Menlo Park, Calif., company is the most celebrated of a group of Web firms that have ignited the IPO market over the past year, including offerings from LinkedIn Corp., Zynga Inc., Groupon Inc. and ...

It appears that scientists are concerned about the serious damage mistakes cause to biomedical research yet can't develop an approach to deal with the problem ("Lab Mistakes Hobble Cancer Studies ...

Holman W. Jenkins Jr.'s ambivalent portrait of the Wal-Mart of Mexico bribery scandal in his April 25 Business World column "Wal-Mart Innocents Abroad" overlooks the fact that bribery is not ...

When Dan Akerson took over the turnaround effort at General Motors Co., few could have predicted one impact he would start to have almost immediately: more important roles for women at GM, all the way ...

Heaven help us. Jim Bakker, the disgraced 1980s televangelist whose "PTL Club" television empire was laid asunder by dual sex and money scandals, is out of prison and renouncing the prosperity ...

WSJ's Jason Zweig checks in on Mean Street to explain the current battle in Washington over whether the SEC should be relieved of overseeing the nation's 28,000 investment advisers. Photo: Getty Images. ...

Mutual-fund managers have little choice but to think big these days. Most managers would describe themselves as stock pickers, insisting their main focus is evaluating companies on their merits, not making ...

The top 1% in the mutual-fund world has it pretty good, too. We're talking about the funds and exchange-traded funds that are attracting the most cash from investors—which translates into more dollars ...

SINGAPORE—Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg is one of the world's most famous chief executives. His former business partner and friend, Eduardo Saverin, is big in Singapore. The Brazilian-born billionaire's ...

The doubt lingers as bankers and prospective investors decide how to value Facebook for an initial public offering planned for May 18, said people familiar with the matter. Facebook executives will be ...

Big insurers are also getting in the game. WellPoint, which already offers a wellness incentive program, is planning a new feature that lets workers track their steps using a pedometer device and compete ...

Ms. Morrison says she cultivated ties with leaders of other food makers by attending food-industry events in her off hours. Joining a corporate board outside their industry also helps prepare executive ...

Jason Schneider It's getting a lot tougher to keep a secret stash. It's a sad but true fact of marriage: Troubled couples often try to hide money from each other, whether to spend it on extramarital mischief ...

1. Your time in fraternity basements was well spent. The same goes for the time you spent playing intramural sports, working on the school newspaper or just hanging with friends. Research tells us that ...

There are two kinds of investors: those who run away from a fire and those who run toward it. Christophe Vorlet To invest in natural-gas stocks, you had better be the kind who runs toward a fire. Prices ...

Buzz around potential buyers has included international collectors who have successfully stalked masterpieces in the past, like Geneva-based billionaire Lily Safra, who spent $104.3 million for Alberto ...

The Wall Street Journal's quarterly survey found that the inventory of homes listed for sale declined sharply in all 28 markets tracked. Real-estate agents consider a market balanced when there is a six-month ...

The plane lands, travelers grab their stuff, check their phones for email and voicemail and file past flight attendants for one last "buh-bye." But increasingly, harried passengers are leaving ...

When Cindy Ballagh's 10-year-old son Kaden lost his portable videogame recently, she asked him where he last put it. His answer: on his dresser. After they spent several minutes searching on, under and ...

For an investment return that tops those offered by hedge funds, insurance firms or Wall Street banks, baby boomers should look to Social Security. That's right: The same math that is driving Social Security ...

How do you like them apples? Investors got a scare on Monday when Apple, among the best-performing stocks of 2012, tumbled 4.2%, capping a five-day stretch during which it lost 8.8%. The stock continued ...

He agreed to pay cash up front for global rights to the trademark and recipes as well as three years of royalty payments. He then figured out how to make the product in China in a way that would let him ...

Flight attendant Chuck Harris made a few calls home to New York so plumbers could fix a broken pipe while he was vacationing in the Dominican Republic. To his surprise, he got a bill for $400—not from ...

Poultry companies that spent decades breeding top-heavy birds to satisfy America's craving for chicken breasts are hunting for solutions as consumers cluck for more dark meat. Demand for legs and thigh ...

Gold has long sparked similar debates, not least because it is difficult to value and generates no income. Lately, the metal has been used as a haven against currencies being debased by stimulus, and by ...

Moody's announced the review in February, saying it was needed in light of the banks' weak conditions and the tough environment in which they're operating. It had planned to start unveiling the decisions ...

Is a tax sin haunting you? Maybe you paid a baby sitter under the table, or "forgot" to declare income, or deducted personal expenses as business costs. Perhaps you didn't know a large tax or ...

Summer vacationers planning a trip across the pond are seeing sky-high prices in many European cities, with airfares 11% higher, on average, than 2011, according to searches on online travel agency Kayak.com. ...

In the mid-2000s, Mr. Barr and colleagues surveyed about 650 low- and moderate-income families in the Detroit area who had filed tax returns in 2003 or 2004. About 82% received refunds—either because they ...