Wal-Mart

A new book on the discount chain’s down-home early days doesn’t tell us much about its status as the world’s largest — and most controversial — retailer.

Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein has been following Wal-Mart for half a decade now, and he believes changes in China, and not in the domestic landscape, may force its day of reckoning.

The knock that Wal-Mart destroys communities is much overstated, say a pair of economics professors. Just look at the data.