[Conor Sen] When Wall Street looks pricey, the rest of the US thrives

In the glory days of the early 1980s, stocks and bonds were cheap and Wall Street became the center of the American economy. But those cheap asset prices did a lot of structural damage to US society, some of which is still becoming clear. The pricey stock market and skinny bond yields of 2017, by contrast, may pay unexpected dividends in the future.Asset prices tend to have an inverse relationship with the strength of the labor market. When unemployment is low, like it is now and like it was in

Oct. 23, 2017

[Christopher Balding] China‘s toughest job?

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, has guided his country’s monetary policy for most of the 21st century. He was appointed in 2002, shortly after China joined the World Trade Organization, and helped steer its economy through the global financial crisis. In the process, he gained widespread respect at home and a reputation for prudent liberalism abroad.Lately, Zhou has been circulating widely. At a forum in June, he criticized protectionism in China’s financial sector. In an

Oct. 23, 2017

[By Matt Levine] Are blockchain diplomas the real deal?

How can I tell if you have a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology? One way would be for me to ask about MIT. If they say yes, then you have a degree from MIT. If they say no, then you don‘t. That is what having a degree from MIT, customarily, means: that MIT acknowledges you as a graduate. MIT is an important credentialing institution because a lot of people trust its degree-granting process. It is, to use the term of art, a trusted intermediary. It is well suited to keep the le

Oct. 23, 2017

[Letter to the editor] A word of thanks and gratitude

My 22-year-old daughter recently visited South Korea country for the first time and doing so was not a decision her dad and I supported, owing to the current political unrest in the neighboring North Korea. However, she found the local people to be kind and generous, which made her stay relaxing and enjoyable. One incident that really punctuated how impressed I became with your country happened when she and her friends visited Busan. My daughter lost her wallet there. She and her friends scoured

Oct. 22, 2017

[Jay Ambrose] Redo the phony Iran deal

It is bogus, it is dangerous, it was built on lies and capitulation, cheating has been going on, the so-called inspection system is a farce, and President Donald Trump wants to do something about it, this nuclear arms deal with Iran.Every 90 days the president has a responsibility to decertify the program if Iran has overstepped the bounds. It has and he did, but did not say we were walking out of the seven-party agreement that will almost certainly stay in place.All kinds of options are neverth

Oct. 22, 2017

[The Japan News] Will Xi intensify hegemonic stance via economic, military strength?

The country’s objective of building up its military strength and becoming dominant in the world as a “great power” has been established. But isn’t it nothing but hegemonism to assert that the country will make light of such universal values as the rule of law and instead rely more on strength?Held once every five years, the Communist Party of China’s National Congress opened, and the party’s general secretary, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a speech.Delivering the political report, which summ

Oct. 22, 2017

[Robert B. Reich] Is Trump unraveling?

Last week, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, charged in an interview with the New York Times that Donald Trump was treating his office like “a reality show,” with reckless threats toward other countries that could set the nation “on the path to World War III.”Corker said he was concerned about Trump: “He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.” Corker added that “the vast majority of our caucus understands what we‘re dealing with

Oct. 20, 2017

[Miller, Scissors] China Isn‘t fixing its flaws

In the runup to China’s twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress, many analysts have turned bullish on the Chinese economy. Some of the optimism is based on an impressive recovery since the quasi-crisis of late 2015 and early 2016, some on hopes that a strengthened President Xi Jinping will emerge from the congress to restart far-reaching reforms. Whatever the cause, though, the giddiness is ill-founded.In our China Beige Book, we quiz over 3,300 firms across China about the performance of their

Oct. 19, 2017

[Stiglitz, Baker, and Jayadev ] Intellectual property for the Twenty-first-century economy

When the South African government attempted to amend its laws in 1997 to avail itself of affordable generic medicines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, the full legal might of the global pharmaceutical industry bore down on the country, delaying implementation and extracting a high human cost. South Africa eventually won its case, but the government learned its lesson: it did not try again to put its citizens’ health and wellbeing into its own hands by challenging the conventional global intellectu

Oct. 19, 2017

[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] Japan’s snap elections are a play for strength

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has called early elections for Oct. 22 to seek to improve his Liberal Democratic Party’s position in the parliament. Americans have a tendency not to pay too close attention to what happens in Japan. This is partly because its society and, thus, its politics are complex and hard to understand. Second, Japan usually, at least superficially, seems to follow US policy lines in foreign affairs without America having to exert too much pressure on its leaders.It wou

Oct. 19, 2017

[Doyle McManus] Think 25th Amendment will take care of Trump? You’re dreaming

Just as his critics warned, President Trump is turning out to be unfit for his job, perhaps dangerously so. That’s a harsh judgment, but it’s no longer coming from the president’s opponents. It’s coming from leading members of his own party.“We could be heading toward World War III with the kind of comments he’s making,” the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, said last week. Corker, who endorsed Trump during the presidential campaign, was only saying in public what o

Oct. 18, 2017

[Eli Lake] Trump’s tough talk on Iran fails to mask inaction

For anyone baffled by President Barack Obama’s humiliating outreach to Iran in his second term, President Donald Trump’s speech Friday was cathartic.He spoke plainly about Iran’s “rogue regime,” which seized power by revolution and “forced its people to submit to fanatical rule.” The nation’s Revolutionary Guard will be designated as supporting terrorism and sanctioned. Trump seeks to assure us that he will never allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. As I reported last week that he would, Trump st

Oct. 18, 2017

[Saket Soni] Who will rebuild? The undocumented

In Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, mammoth hurricanes have left behind a colossal amount of work. The cleanup and reconstruction efforts are going to take years. That means a severe demand for salvage and demolition crews, roofers, carpenters, drywall installers, painters, plumbers and workers in all manner of other trades and skills.And if recent history tells us anything, much of this demand will be met by immigrants -- migrant laborers, many of them highly skilled, and man

Oct. 18, 2017