Modern vice presidents can trace much of their political influence to the broad reforms that Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale made to the second-highest elected office in the late 1970s.

Over the past decade, the Fed kept interest rates low while it deployed trillions of dollars in stimulus and expanded its regulatory oversight. Now, the central bank is back in the spotlight for its …

The sprawling U.S. water system is central to the nation’s economy, but chronic underinvestment, increasing demand, and the consequences of climate change have revealed the system’s weaknesses.