It's the worst enemy of environmental campaigners, but people around the world use mountains of plastic every day and business is booming for manufacturers.

A 30-percent U.S. tariff on imported solar panels put in place last winter should have caused prices here to jump.

Bob Blocksom, an 87-year-old former insurance salesman in Lake Milton, Ohio, needs a job. He hasn’t saved enough money for his retirement. And trucking companies, desperate for workers, are willing to give him one.

Often, the reality is that valuable time and money are wasted on bleeding-edge technologies. Avoid the hype and rely on leading-edge technology that supports your company culture.

However they see Amazon, for good or ill, residents of the fastest-growing city in the U.S. largely agree on the price Seattle has paid to be the home of the megacorporation: surging rents, homelessness, traffic-clogged streets, overburdened public transport, an influx of young men in polo shirts and a creeping uniformity rubbing against the city’s counterculture.

With tariffs driving up the price of stainless steel, the precision-part manufacturer Accu-Swiss in Oakdale, Calif., came up with a plan to save money: turn off the lights but keep the machines on.