In the week and a half since the Chinese government detained artist Ai Weiwei on suspicion of “economic crimes,” Western governments and the global arts community have condemned China’s repression of free speech. Regular Americans, too, should care about China’s habit of stifling information that it doesn’t like to hear. China is applying the same habit to another type of speech, economic speech.

April 18, 2011

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget is the first sensible, long-term fiscal blueprint to come out of Congress in decades. You could say it’s a budget of the grownups, by the grownups, for the grownups.As such, it deserves what even President Obama says is needed, an “adult conversation” on the country’s financial health.Not that there hasn’t already been comment on Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity.” House

April 17, 2011

If an individual’s body mass index isn’t a purely personal matter, what is? We have the right to choose between healthy food or junk food, even if the latter is more likely to result in obesity and related health problems. But once our choices affect others, there’s a natural conflict between individual freedom and social responsibility. In a nation where rising health-care costs and diminished ac

April 17, 2011

Rarely has the fog of war settled so quickly or as thickly as it has around President Obama’s Libyan adventure. Remember how the president promised military operations would last “days, not weeks”? That was nearly a month ago ― and now Obama’s advisers are being coy about whether the White House intends to comply with the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which sets a 60-day limit on military actions wi

April 17, 2011

Republicans jumped all over President Barack Obama’s budget speech at George Washington University as political, and they are absolutely right.It was the old Obama, the one who changed history in 2008, and he is back on his game, both thematically and tactically. The domestic debate now is much clearer and the takeaway for Republicans is out of a horror movie: Be afraid. Be very afraid.Obama was e

April 17, 2011

The recent Sturm und Drang in Washington over a possible government shutdown was just a warm-up act for the more significant budget disputes to come this year. Rather than haggling over a few billions of dollars in spending, the debate over the budget for the next fiscal year will involve trillions of dollars worth of deficits and debt. And soon after Congress adopts a budget, it will have to deci

April 15, 2011

Risk assessments have see-sawed between hopeful and grim, but never dire, in the month since the Fukushima nuclear complex began leaking radiation. The Japanese authorities’ caution showed how variable the nature of determining radioactive contamination was, as well as a wish to not overload the senses of a people coping with the earthquake-tsunami devastation. But it has been hard to keep the fai

April 15, 2011

The International Monetary Fund isn’t known for its forecasting prowess in Asia. Even by those standards, its latest guesstimate for Japan is a standout. By the IMF’s math, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, a 23-meter tsunami and nuclear reactors leaking radiation will barely nick growth. It now sees Japan advancing 1.4 percent this year, down from its earlier 1.6 percent prediction. That raises a very

April 15, 2011

ASEAN and its three regional partners ― Japan, China and South Korea ― have decided to launch a surveillance mechanism in May in the light of their $120 billion currency-swap facility that was established in 2009, to ensure sufficient U.S. dollar liquidity in the event of a financial crisis caused by sudden, massive capital outflows.The basic idea of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic and Research Offices

April 15, 2011

We hope the Reconstruction Design Council set up by the government on April 11 will offer hope and courage to those facing hardship in areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake.Through a Cabinet decision, the government set up the panel of experts tasked with presenting a set of proposals on the reconstruction of areas hit by the massive earthquake and tsunami.The 15-member council, head

April 15, 2011

There are few occasions in life more idyllic than college graduation. Steeped in ceremony, it is the moment of triumph after years of work, a time for parents to beam proudly and gowned students to receive their hard-earned diplomas.However, graduates aren’t the only ones earning something on commencement day. Some colleges and universities are paying exorbitant fees ― not just expenses ― for grad

April 14, 2011

Once the dust settles from last week’s short-term budget battle, we may learn something important for the long term: What did voters really want last November when they handed control of the House of Representatives to Speaker John A. Boehner’s Republicans?Budget wonks complain that all that recent brinksmanship and fury was over relatively trivial sums of money, less than 1 percent of the governm

April 14, 2011