[Tyler Cowen] Americans own less stuff, and that’s reason to be nervous

Some social problems are blatantly obvious in daily life, while others are longer-term, more corrosive and perhaps mostly invisible. Lately I’ve been worrying about a problem of the latter kind: the erosion of personal ownership and what that will mean for our loyalties to traditional American concepts of capitalism and private property.　The main culprits for the change are software and the internet. For instance, Amazon’s Kindle and other methods of online reading have revolutionized how Americ

Aug. 14, 2018

[Conor Sen] China-US trade spat is just a start to the economic Cold War

China is not just another front in President Donald Trump’s war on trade. Unlike Mexico, Canada, Europe and other targets of the president, China will be a source of economic conflict for years to come, long after the tariff level on soybeans has been settled. Like the rivalry with the Soviet Union, economic competition with China may form a Cold War that shapes American politics and economic policy for a generation or more.　Until now, through flukes of timing, Americans have largely been distra

Aug. 14, 2018

[Therese Raphael] US-Turkey relations will never be the same

There are only two ways that the diplomatic rift between the US and Turkey can end: a compromise that salvages the relationship as best possible, or a complete rupture with devastating consequences both for Turkey’s economy and America’s regional strategic interests. Either way, there is no going back to the way things were.　The arrest in Turkey of American pastor Andrew Brunson nearly two years ago has led to a diplomatic spat that threatens a full-blown economic meltdown in Turkey. Brunson, al

Aug. 14, 2018

[Jay Ambrose] Craziness on the loose in public affairs

Don’t just stand there, do something, the old saying goes, and, in this peculiar, modern age in which we live, that often turns out to be something that achieves nothing good while doing a lot that’s bad. Excuse me. I said it achieves nothing good, but there is the soothing feeling that radical environmentalists, extreme leftists and their dupes likely get, for instance, when they ban plastic straws.　It’s an absurdity that pretty much started out when a fourth-grader and his mom did a calculatio

Aug. 13, 2018

[Anjani Trivedi] Carmakers are choking on blue-sky emission rules

Mazda Motor’s struggle to save the internal combustion engine from extinction threatens to choke in a cloud of faulty emissions tests. It may not be the only casualty: The widening global emissions scandal perhaps says as much about badly designed standards as the failings of automakers.　Mazda has eschewed the industry’s rush to develop electric vehicles. The Japanese carmaker announced its intention last year to commercialize a next generation of internal combustion engines that would be 20 per

Aug. 13, 2018

[Eli Lake] John Bolton makes the case for hunting witches

Usually when someone analogizes the US government’s current campaign against Russian influence to the Red Scare of the 1950s, it’s meant as a cautionary device. Let’s not go back to black lists and “un-American activities.”　Last week, however, National Security Adviser John Bolton reached back to this era to describe in earnest what the US intelligence community believes it’s up against. In an interview with the conservative radio host Mark Levin, Bolton described the kind of Russian and foreign

Aug. 13, 2018

[Michael Schuman] A US-China divorce would be ugly

A financial adviser I know, Frank Astorino, says nothing destroys wealth like divorce. That’s a warning China and the US should keep in mind as they intensify their trade war. If they continue down the road they’re on, an economic separation between the world’s two-largest economies is a very real possibility. And the costs would likely exceed any marital spat in history.　Sure, there’s always a chance that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping could renew their friendship and hash out a deal. But if they

Aug. 12, 2018

[Andy Mukherjee] How to end Japan’s deflation? Abolish cash

Monetary medicine in Japan is keeping the economy alive, but with nasty side effects. The search for a new cure should begin with a simple question: What if the Bank of Japan were to throw out its money-printing presses?　Instead of pushing more yen into an economy that has already absorbed a threefold increase in cheap central-bank funds in five years without any sign of the much-awaited 2 percent inflation, maybe it’s time to abolish cash altogether.　While previous BOJ chiefs were rightly blame

Aug. 12, 2018

[Kay Coles James] Nation in turmoil must choose civility

In 1961, I participated in what a Richmond, Virginia, newspaper called “one of the most ambitious experiments in race-mixing the South had seen.” With the nation in turmoil, 25 other black students and I helped integrate an all-white junior high school.　Outside the school, we faced angry crowds determined to prevent us from getting a quality education in peace. Inside, we were constantly afraid of being confronted by the white toughs who took special joy in threatening us black kids. We were jus

Aug. 12, 2018

[Eli Lake] Trump’s sanctions miss a chance to help Iran’s protesters

In light of the recent demonstrations in Iranian cities, one might think the Donald Trump administration would want to link Monday’s re-implementation of sanctions to the struggles of Iran’s freedom movement. 　After all, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month detailed the corruption of the current regime in Tehran in a speech at the Reagan Library in California. In May, the Treasury Department implemented sanctions against Evin Prison, the dungeon where many demonstrators and activists end up

Aug. 9, 2018

[Jakarta Post] Strengthening ASEAN

Today ASEAN celebrates its 51st anniversary amid various changes both in the region and the world that may affect the grouping’s dream of achieving a peaceful and prosperous community.　Internally, ASEAN member states are still struggling to finish all the work required to reach One Community based on One Vision and One Identity. Compared to the European Union, widely considered to be the holy grail of regional integrity, ASEAN is much more diverse, not only in its cultures but especially the pol

Aug. 8, 2018