The Associated Press recently moved a provocative series about the changing landscape for jobs in the United States. It made a good case that middle-class jobs eliminated by technology and the recession aren’t coming back.

Congress likes to impose draconian consequences — the fiscal cliff, sequestration, national default — on itself, and unfortunately on the rest of us as well, for failing to do what it’s supposed to do.

North Korea’s latest nuclear weapons test was not unexpected, after weeks of bellicose talk, but it is deeply worrying and destabilizing for peace in the region.