Herbie Mays is 3M proud, and it shows - in the 3M shirt he wears; in the 3M ring he earned after three decades at the company's plant in suburban Cincinnati; in the way he shows off a card from a 3M supervisor, praising Mays as "a GREAT employee." But it's all nostalgia.

The nation has split into political tribes. The culture wars are back, waged over transgender rights and immigration. White nationalists are on the march. Amid this turbulence, a surprising group of Americans is testing its moral voice more forcefully than ever: C.E.O.s.

On a hot day in June, the Hermann Hesse slipped into New York Harbor and headed for the Red Hook Container Terminal in Brooklyn. The 550-foot container ship, flying the Liberian flag, had come some 3,000 miles from Ecuador. It had gone through the Panama Canal, picked up cargo in the Caribbean and weathered a few squalls.

Donald Trump promised Americans that they would be exhausted from "winning" on trade under his presidency. But nearly seven months after Trump took office, the industries he vowed to protect have become tired of something else: waiting.

After a meteoric rise that made it, at least briefly, the most valuable car company in America, Tesla arrived at a moment of truth last week as it delivered the first of its mass-market sedans to their new owners.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has proposed 10 policy actions to boost U.S. manufacturing that the retailer says could help recapture $300bn of the $650bn worth of consumer goods that are currently imported.