The EU granted individuals the “right to a persona,” allowing them to shape how their past is presented to the world. The U.S. should follow

By Julie Jargon and Eric Morath SAN JOSE, Calif.—As lawmakers in the nation's capital are mired in debate over likely outcomes from raising the federal minimum wage, businesses hit with local wage increases across the U.S. already are grappling with the reality.A Carl's Jr. franchisee in San Francisco offset the county's higher minimum wage—now $10.74—by using less shortening to make french fries. A White Castle in Illinois cut two jobs to match competitors' costs in nearby Indiana, where the mandated wage is lower.

By Ami Kassar The U.S. Small Business Administration has a marketing challenge: Many entrepreneurs don't understand its lending program. A lot of the confusion arises when an entrepreneur speaks with a lender about the opportunity to get an SBA-backed loan. If the lender rejects the application and doesn't provide financing, the borrower often assumes that he or she has been automatically disqualified from the program. This is because the borrower thinks that the SBA is the lender, when in fact it isn't. Instead, the SBA is a guarantor of small-business loans.

By Rolfe Winkler, Matt Jarzemsky and Evelyn Rusli Tech stocks have taken a pounding over the past month, putting pressure on the ecosystem for financing startups and taking them public.The market's recent downturn—despite a modest rally this week—has changed the tone in Silicon Valley and has some company directors recalibrating their expectations, said Jim Breyer, a partner at venture-capital firm Accel Partners."Not a board meeting goes by when at least half the meeting isn't spent on financial strategy," said Mr. Breyer, who also is chief executive of Breyer Capital.