[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Trump’s diminishing power and rising rage

The drama of Donald Trump’s presidency has centered on whether an extremist president would be able to carry out an extremist policy agenda against the will of the majority of Americans. So far the answer has been no, and the midterm elections make it far less likely. Yet Trump’s rising frustrations could push him over the edge psychologically, with potentially harrowing consequences for American democracy and the world.None of Trump’s extremist policy ideas has received public support. Trump ha

Nov. 14, 2018

[Steve Lopez] One California calamity after another, and yet we always endure

We have no hurricanes, cyclones or statewide freezes in California.Everything else, we have.Earthquakes, yes. Torrential downpours, yes. Mudslides, yes. Extended droughts, yes. A president who kicks us when we’re down, yes.All that, as well as mass shootings and wind-whipped killer firestorms that devour parched vegetation, homes, people and everything else in their path.A town named Paradise has been reduced to ash.More than three dozen are dead in the Tubbs fire.The Woolsey Fire marches on Wes

Nov. 14, 2018

[Anjani Trivedi] Rules of the road evade driverless cars

People have been imagining driverless cars since at least 1958, when Walt Disney Co. aired “Magic Highway U.S.A.” It’s been almost five decades, and we’re still talking about them.Initially, evolution in transport had been a product of necessity: As we moved from horse-drawn carriages to horseless ones, from steam engines to internal combustion, each development improved distance and speed. Then came luxuries like comfort and fuel-efficiency.Driverless cars could become more convenient than conv

Nov. 13, 2018

[Mary C. Curtis] Did politics of division work? Yes and no

Donald Trump is a celebrity president, more interested in declaring a “great victory” after the 2018 midterms than in vowing to bring the country together. As he sparred with the media Wednesday and bragged about outdoing Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and famous folks who stumped for the other side, he did his best Rodney Dangerfield routine, playing the aggrieved president who has all the power but gets no respect.When asked about the violent episodes that shook America in the weeks before Nov. 6

Nov. 13, 2018

[James Stavridis] Today’s armies are still fighting World War I

A hundred years ago today, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the First World War in Europe ended. It had cost tens of millions of lives, utterly destroyed the existing political order, and paved the way for the rise of fascism and a repeat performance of global conflict in the form of World War II. Barbara Tuchman, in her peerless book on the outbreak of the war, “The Guns of August,” said, “Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.” In the

Nov. 13, 2018

[Noah Smith] Democrats should aim high

The US government is divided once again. Democrats have the House of Representatives, while Republicans still hold the presidency and have deepened their control over the Senate. This means actual legislative breakthroughs are likely to be few and far between. But that doesn’t mean it’s useless to think about policy -- on the contrary, now is a perfect time for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to lay out their big ideas, as a way of inspiring the country to think about the future. Here’s a b

Nov. 12, 2018

[Trudy Rubin] House win means Democrats can scrutinize Trump’s foreign policy

Don’t expect the mixed results of Nov. 6’s midterm elections to rein in “Trumpism.”I refer to the president’s personalized foreign policy that disses treaties, friendly leaders, old alliances and anything multilateral, but favors dealings with strongmen.Although the House of Representatives changed hands, the Republican Party’s increased control of the Senate will block any effort to pass legislation that could circumscribe Donald Trump’s foreign policy efforts. Moreover, the US Congress has rar

Nov. 12, 2018

[Allison Jaslow] This is a time for everyday heroes

“Not all heroes wear capes.” This Veterans Day, I have a new spin on that popular saying: Not all American heroes wear camouflage.I appreciate the high regard most Americans have for us veterans in the post-9/11 era, but the strength of our country depends on patriots of all kinds. Every citizen has to be invested in the success of our democracy, not just those in the warrior class. And I definitely didn’t deploy to Iraq twice to defend this country, our constitution and our ideals abroad just t

Nov. 12, 2018

[David Fickling] We’re running out of road

Think traffic is bad in New York or London? They ain’t got nothing on Jakarta and Chongqing.The top of TomTom NV’s ranking of the world’s most congested places is dominated by emerging markets. Among cities in rich countries, only Los Angeles makes it into the top 15, and then only just. Some of the world’s worst traffic snarls are in South Asian cities not even picked up by TomTom’s ranking, such as Dhaka, Delhi and Karachi. Their problems are only likely to get worse as growing populations and

Nov. 11, 2018

[Jonathan Bernstein] Trump should learn from Nixon’s mistakes

President Donald Trump pushed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign Wednesday. Matthew Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff, who has expressed hostility to special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry, will step in as acting attorney general and, according to reports, take over supervision of the investigation.The president has the right to replace his cabinet officials. After all, it’s not unusual, as Trump said in his press conference earlier Wednesday, to have some turnover after an election.But

Nov. 11, 2018

[Therese Raphael] Brexit enters its most dangerous phase

If the European Commission’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, utters the words “decisive progress” sometime in the next few days, take notice. It would be the signal that the UK and the European Union have agreed on the terms of their divorce. A summit can be held and the white smoke sent up.That would be a watershed after 16 months of negotiations and drama. It would mean broad agreement has been reached, including one on the tricky problem of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.Bu

Nov. 11, 2018

[Daniel Moss] Japan can trim stimulus without repeating mistakes

If Haruhiko Kuroda is starting to lay the groundwork to trim Japan’s huge stimulus, he’ll be looking over his shoulder at two things: the world outside and a deceased predecessor.The first issue for the Bank of Japan governor to watch is the international scene, which is getting tougher for central banks eyeing steps away from ultra-accommodation. Kuroda’s speech this week in Nagoya that hinted at policy normalization described a benign global growth outlook. It’s as though the weaker data of th

Nov. 8, 2018

[David Ignatius] America needs a leader who can capture the high ground of technology

A conference here to gather American business and military experts to discuss the coming revolution in artificial intelligence was a good Election Day measure of the challenges ahead to maintain the US competitive edge. Corporate and government leaders agree that China’s rapid application of AI to business and military problems should be a “Sputnik moment” to propel change in America. As a top-down command economy, China is directing money and its best brains to develop the smart systems that wi

Nov. 8, 2018