[Tyler Cowen] Women dominated the decade

People react so emotionally to politics, I have decided to assess the decade just past by considering something less partisan but no less illuminating: culture.Start with the music I have been listening to over the last few weeks. Every December I buy the albums that appear on the various “best of” lists. This year my pile of compact discs is mostly music recorded by women -- Billie Eilish, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, Jenny Lewis, FKA Twigs and others.

Dec. 30, 2019

[Noah Smith] Inequality is up a lot. The question is: how much?

Inequality in the US has risen a lot during the past few decades. This has sparked outrage among segments of the public, raised concern among economists and other social scientists, and revitalized America’s socialist movement.Much of the debate has been driven by the work of three French economists -- Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. The trio has put out a huge amount of impressive work, digging into historical archives and patching together a diverse array of modern data

Dec. 30, 2019

[Trudy Rubin] During holidays, here’s how to help refugees

On Dec. 20, in a grim prelude to Christmas, China and Russia vetoed cross-border aid deliveries from Turkey and Iraq to millions of desperate Syrian civilians.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the two countries of having “blood on their hands.” He’s correct, since Russian planes continue to bomb hospitals and markets in rebel-held areas of Syria. What Pompeo didn’t say was that tens of thousands of those refugees are Kurds driven from their homes when President Donal

Dec. 29, 2019

[Pankaj Mishra] Trump’s trade wars expose an abiding truth

As the year ends, a partial and brief cease-fire seems imminent in Donald Trump’s trade war on the world. The United States and China may sign a deal as early as next month. But make no mistake: The protectionist impulse behind the trade war remains as ineradicable as ever.Nor should it be forgotten that economic nationalism has guided the destiny of all major nations since the 19th century. According to the ideological prejudices of the present, built up over nearly four decades of global

Dec. 29, 2019

[Ferdinando Giugliano] Greece gets a dose of McKinsey management

Since the euro crisis earlier this decade, Greece has been the sick man of the monetary union.Athens has at times been in danger of crashing out of the single currency, despite three rescue programs and the restructuring of its sovereign debt. Last year the economy was still 24 percent smaller than it was in 2008. For a long time, it seemed that the best the eurozone could do was to keep propping up Greece to avoid an even bigger problem.Hence it’s remarkable that Greece’s new prime

Dec. 26, 2019

[Lionel Laurent] Macron battles against boomers, pensions

Emmanuel Macron is the first French president in a decade who isn’t a baby boomer, and it shows.The 41-year-old’s battle to reform France’s high-tax, high-spend economy is often fought in the name of generational equality -- largely by tilting the balance away from the elderly in favor of the young. Last year, as a gesture to help young people coming to the job market, the Macron administration hiked social welfare taxes on retirees, an unpopular move that was later reversed in

Dec. 25, 2019

[Adam Minter] In ‘Star Wars’ economy, one thing doesn’t pay

Junk is surprisingly pervasive in “Star Wars,” playing an understated role in nearly every film in the series. In “The Phantom Menace,” we meet young Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, working at a small electronics scrapyard and repair shop. In “A New Hope,” Luke Skywalker’s uncle buys R2-D2 and C-3PO from a group of Jawas, a species that drive massive, sand-crawling junk trucks. The recently released “Rise of Skywalker” is largely a

Dec. 25, 2019

[Conor Sen] Soccer is the future of sports in America

If you’re in the business of professional sports right now, the fundamentals are cause for concern. Attendance is falling, even in the midst of a strong economy. Perhaps some of that decline can be attributed to the improvement in high-definition broadcasting and the prevalence of large flat-screen televisions, which make watching at home a much better experience than in the past.But that wouldn’t explain why TV ratings this season for the National Basketball Association have fallen

Dec. 24, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] Dreaming of a white Christmas in Spain

When I was a little boy right after the 1950-53 Korean War, I received a Christmas present from Santa Claus. On that Christmas Eve, I woke up in the middle of the night and found the gift next to my pillow. I was overjoyed because it was the first Christmas present I had ever received.The present turned out to be six pencils made in the U.S.A., arrayed in an orderly fashion in a gorgeous pencil box. At that time, Korea suffered postwar poverty and quality pencils were rare and expensive. Thus, t

Dec. 24, 2019

[Noah Smith] High-speed rail is going nowhere fast in US

Some leaders in the US are intent on reviving the old dream of high-speed rail. Sen. Bernie Sanders is proposing $607 billion for a new high-speed train network as part of his Green New Deal. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez included it in her own plan earlier this year. On Twitter, Sanders’s political allies sing the praises of high-speed rail systems such as China’s.High-speed rail puts an optimistic, futuristic face on an economic agenda that might otherwise seem mainly abo

Dec. 23, 2019

[Leonid Bershidsky] Airbnb is a tech company, but Uber is a taxi firm

Plenty of companies have raised billions of dollars by selling themselves as tech unicorns rather than firms in traditional businesses -- for example, taxi services or office rentals. Regulators have been a harder sell for such stories than investors. But now, a unicorn, Airbnb, has managed to establish in Europe that it’s a tech company, not a real estate agent.The European Court of Justice has already had occasion to rule on the tech champion/disguised traditional business dilemma. In 20

Dec. 23, 2019

[James Gibney] An impeached Trump can’t be trusted on NK

President Donald Trump’s all-but-certain acquittal in his impending Senate impeachment trial will likely embolden him in all sorts of ways, some more frightening than others. One deal he will be sorely tempted to make, after three years of erratic and mostly unproductive diplomacy, is to accommodate his “friend” Kim Jong-un and ease sanctions on North Korea. It will be up to the US Congress to stop him.“If I weren’t president, you’d be at war with North Korea,

Dec. 22, 2019

[Jeffrey Frankel] Six tax-based ways to tackle US inequality

Three years ago, Donald Trump’s victory in the United States’ presidential election triggered a search for explanations of what is still a shocking outcome. One immediately came to dominate: His Democratic opponents had been insufficiently aware of the problem of income inequality, or had neglected to propose effective solutions.That is presumably the logic behind the radical proposals to tackle inequality coming from some of the leading candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidentia

Dec. 22, 2019

[Josep Borrell] Time for real Europe-Asia partnership

A few days ago, I chaired the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). What might seem to be a rather bureaucratic acronym, actually is a politically highly relevant event for our continents. I had offered to host this meeting in Madrid when I was still Foreign Minister of Spain and I chaired it as EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. It underlines my personal interest in the fast-moving continent that is Asia today. The meeting confirmed my conviction in a world of accelerati

Dec. 19, 2019

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] The UK’s electoral system failed

On the most important issue in the United Kingdom’s modern history -- whether to leave the European Union or remain -- the UK’s electoral system produced an absurd result. A majority of the UK public wants to remain in the EU, and actually voted accordingly in the parliamentary election on Dec. 12. Yet the election produced a large majority for the Conservative Party, which backs a quick Brexit. The reason is as simple as it is troubling: the failure of the first-past-the-post electo

Dec. 19, 2019

[Kim Myong-sik] Awaiting young leaders who reject left, right extremism

South Korea’s political leaders are neither too old nor too young. Out of some 18 people so far mentioned in the media as presidential aspirants, 10 are in their 60s, seven are in the 50s and the oldest, Sohn Hak-kyu of the Bareunmirae Party, is 71. Lee Hae-chan of the ruling Democratic Party, not a serious contender, is 67 years old.Sorry to say this, but the news of Sanna Marin, 34, being installed as the new prime minister of Finland made the power contestants here, who are almost twice

Dec. 18, 2019

[Mohamed A. El-Erian] US-China deal a short-term truce

There are times, including in armed conflict, when adversaries see it in their own interests to opt for a truce and sell it to the outside world as a steppingstone to a comprehensive peace. But both sides know it will be only a prelude to renewed tensions down the road.This could well be the best way to think of the “phase one deal” between China and the United States. Yet, it’s not how the equity markets see the situation. Instead, they are pricing the deal as simultaneously i

Dec. 18, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] ‘A Lone Lighthouse Keeper’ of Korea

Recently I came across a book of memoirs by Kim Yong-chol, professor emeritus of Sungkyunkwan University. The book, “A Lone Lighthouse Keeper: Memoirs of Kim Yong-chol,” is the author’s reminiscence of the particularly turbulent period of modern Korean history that he has lived through. Indeed, Kim’s life is an embodiment of modern South Korea itself, and his autobiography is an important social document vividly depicting nearly all the major events that occurred in the 2

Dec. 17, 2019