[Tyler Cowen] Bilateral trade deals can work, if your name isn’t Trump

One of the most fascinating moments in recent negotiations came when US President Donald Trump offered complete free trade to his European partners at the Group of Seven meetings. Trump may have viewed this as a public relations ploy, but the response was still striking: No major European political leader embraced the idea. Nor did China.　So how to make further progress on trade? Well, Trump on Monday threatened China with an extra $200 billion in tariffs, thereby moving back to bilateral pressu

June 25, 2018

[Zev Chafets] Israel’s spy thriller puts old assumptions to the test

Israeli security services engage in a form of profiling that rests on a basic assumption: Jewish Israelis are on Israel’s side. They are not likely to be terrorists bent on blowing up the airport, or spies working for the enemy.　This form of profiling almost always works. But it is not foolproof. In mid-June, a Jerusalem court indicted Gonen Segev on charges of “assisting the enemy in wartime and espionage.” In a statement issued on June 15, the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, alle

June 25, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Video replay for refs makes World Cup better

Soccer can be annoying, especially to those who watch only the big tournaments. There are too many fouls, baffling referee errors and players without a scratch on them rolling in the grass as if in unbearable pain -- and too few goals. But the 2018 World Cup has been surprisingly different (with a few exceptions). The improvement probably comes down to a single rule change: Referees now have access to video replays.　 A little more than a week into the monthlong competition, it’s too early to kno

June 24, 2018

[Adam Minter] China’s epic film bubble is about to pop

Four of China’s leading film executives recently gathered on a Shanghai stage with a bleak message. “There are 20,000 film and television companies” in China, said Wang Changtian, president of Beijing Enlight Media. “Many aren’t making money at the moment, so why are they still here?” He predicted that thousands will go bankrupt over the next year -- a full-on bubble in movie-making, ready to pop.　It’s a classic Chinese tale. Bureaucrats in Beijing decide a favored industry must become globally

June 24, 2018

[Noah Smith] Domino’s Pizza fixing potholes is an ominous sign

I recently noticed a string of interesting news stories, all with the same theme. Domino’s Pizza is donating money to 20 US cities, to be used for fixing potholes and cracked roads. Salesforce has donated $1.5 million to reduce homelessness in San Francisco, and its CEO, Marc Benioff, has spoken of grander schemes to end homelessness in the city entirely. And Facebook is talking about renovating a defunct bridge that runs across the San Francisco Bay near its offices.　All of these initiatives, i

June 24, 2018

[Noah Smith] Too many of America’s smartest waste their talents

A high-profile court case about meritocracy and college admissions has captured much attention. A group called Students for Fair Admissions alleges that Harvard University uses highly subjective personality ratings to penalize Asian applicants. The former tend to outperform white applicants on every measure except for so-called personality, but the number of Asian-American students at Harvard has fallen relative to the Asian-American population, while the number for white students has risen, dur

June 21, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Europe and the US could make migration manageable

As the global number of asylum seekers continues to increase, migration is now a political lightning rod on both sides of the Atlantic. And yet politicians don’t seem interested in solving the problem so much as wielding it against opponents.　According to a new European Union report on the asylum situation, 954,000 asylum applicants were awaiting decisions in Europe at the end of 2017, 16 percent fewer than a year earlier. Fewer new applications were lodged, and more of them were rejected as the

June 21, 2018

[Michael Schuman] China should listen to US trade complaints

President Donald Trump and the Democrats can’t agree on anything, except one big thing: China. After the administration announced plans on June 15 to impose tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports, Charles Schumer, the Democrats’ Senate leader, called the decision “on the money.”　 That was a startling statement on a startling fact: China has few friends left in Washington, on either side of the political aisle. The bipartisan vote to block Trump’s compromise on ZTE Corp. sanctions is further e

June 21, 2018

[David Fickling] Get ready, America. Trade war’s coming for your hip pocket

“A wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy,” according to the Chinese general Sun Tzu. “One cartload of the enemy’s provisions is equivalent to 20 of one’s own.”　The lesson of that maxim -- that leaders need to pay close attention to the economics of conflict, and make sure that costs are imposed more on the enemy than the home front -- holds as true today as it did two-and-a-half millennia ago. Washington doesn’t appear to be listening.　The White House’s promise to impose 10 percent

June 20, 2018

[Adam Minter] The robot farm is here

As rich countries welcome autonomous cars, trucks and boats onto their roads and waterways, the developing world is grappling with a humbler revolution: automated farming. What was once the world’s most labor-intensive profession may be soon run by smartphones. And that could change agriculture as profoundly as mechanization did last century.This shift will affect how food is grown and consumed everywhere. But its greatest impact will be in the developing world, where subsistence farms account f

June 20, 2018

[Tyler Cowen] American families shouldn’t be separated, either

One of the worst American policies today is the decision of President Donald Trump’s administration to separate many immigrant parents from their children after they illegally cross the US border. Obviously, a case can be made for enforcing the border, but deliberate cruelty is never a good idea. Those children -- innocent victims all of them -- will likely be traumatized for life. I am uncomfortably reminded of the US’ long history of separating parents and children from the days of slavery and

June 20, 2018