[William Pesek] Buffett ‘buying opportunity’ meets next big one

The Z/Yen Group just published its annual Global Financial Centers Index and Tokyo is tied with Shanghai for fifth place. If the survey were retaken today, what might happen to Tokyo’s standing?What a difference 12 days make: a massive earthquake, deadly tsunamis, radiation panic that only now is coming under control and blackouts that halted production at the likes of Toyota Motor Corp. Japan’s w

March 24, 2011

Convey a positive vision for Latin America

President Obama’s first extended tour through Latin America comes not a moment too soon. There’s nothing like a personal visit by the president to showcase U.S.-Latin American relations and disarm critics who feel the president has neglected the region. To make this visit count, the president must speak to the region’s concerns and anxieties.Brazil, his first stop, has been labeled “the country of

March 23, 2011

‘Arab spring’ spreads from county to country

Far from the perils of Japan, the world’s attention also focuses on Libya. There U.S. and allied warplanes and cruise missiles aim to force dictator Moammar Gadhafi from power, or at least help antigovernment rebels keep fighting.That’s the riveting Main Event at the moment in the greater Middle East. But peel away from that military spectacle for a moment. Take a glance across the rest of the Mid

March 23, 2011

[Edward N. Luttwak] Libya: It’s not our fight

Once again the United States is bombing a Muslim country to liberate its people from their own sanguinary rulers. Once again we are told that innocent civilians are being massacred and that the United States must intervene as a matter of moral duty, in its capacity as a great and good nation. But in this case ― even as part of a broader, U.N.-sanctioned coalition to enforce a no-fly zone ― the U.S

March 23, 2011

[Mycle Schneider] Nuclear fallout comes with aura of arrogance

Some people just shouldn’t be in charge of high-risk nuclear facilities.As far back as 2005, I warned Eisaku Sato, governor of Fukushima at the time, about the dangers of letting spent fuel accumulate in cooling ponds at the prefecture’s nuclear plants and the need to put it into much safer dry stores as soon as possible. He seemed to be the only one who listened. But clearly there were people who

March 23, 2011

[Amity Shlaes] Harvard is just worth mom’s party chatter

Anxious families awaiting April college admission news are living their own March Madness.Their insanity is captured in Andrew Ferguson’s new book, “Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College” (Simon & Schuster). He describes the vanity of a desperate mother at a cocktail party who is dying to announce her daughter’s perfect SAT scores:“‘We were really surprised at how well sh

March 23, 2011

Reasons why some things are best left unsaid

In our past editorials, we have touched on the topic of political correctness (PC), concluding that Taiwan as a nation could use a good dose of PC. However, it appears that the United States, the “Land of the Free” and arguably one of the most PC-striving countries in the world to which we look up, has shown some deeply abhorrent behavior, from high-profile radio personalities to university studen

March 22, 2011

[Richard Parker] Libya: An end game enveloped by deception

If, as Sun Tzu wrote, “all warfare is based upon deception,” then the war now unfolding in the Libyan desert is one towering with deception. And it appears that the Obama administration is skillfully wielding at least this one deadly principle of conflict.Operation Odyssey Dawn is no no-fly zone; it is most likely the first, opening gambit of a potentially larger military operation. By expanding t

March 22, 2011

Bias against catastrophic nuclear tail events

The worst case. These three words have been at the back of everyone’s mind ever since the Fukushima reactors began malfunctioning after being swamped by a tsunami. Remarkably, these reactors have been at the front of few experts’ mouths.Many experts have shied away from describing worst-case outcomes, which are terrifying to contemplate and risky to mention. The risk isn’t just panicking the publi

March 22, 2011

[Albert Hunt] Hubristic Republicans misread political landscape

Sun Tzu’s admonition to know thine enemy is as essential in politics as it is in war.With Democrats and Republicans locked in a struggle for supremacy, both are guardedly optimistic that currents are blowing their way. In dozens of conversations over the past week or so, while differences emerge among politicians when it comes to their own parties, there’s a consensus about their opponents’ vulner

March 22, 2011

Japan’s crises call for clear command structure

The government’s measures to deal with the disasters caused by the March 11 earthquake have lagged from the beginning. The Prime Minister’s Office must rebuild its crisis management system as soon as possible.Extensive physical damage is not the only characteristic of the Tohoku Pacific Offshore Earthquake. The multiple disaster situation includes a wide variety of problems, such as the nuclear pl

March 21, 2011

Horrors make us rethink the unthinkable

With every passing day, Japan’s chain reaction of disasters pushes the envelope of what humankind regards as unthinkable.Last week’s 9.0 earthquake was so powerful it literally altered the earth’s rotation and shortened the length of our day. Yet that’s the least of the world-rattling implications from the horrors still unfolding on Japan’s largest island, Honshu.Foremost on everyone’s mind are th

March 21, 2011

[David Scheffer] Keeping Gadhafi on a leash

On Thursday evening the U.N. Security Council hit the right target when it authorized a no-fly zone over Libya, as well as “all necessary measures” against loyalist forces of Moammar Gadhafi. With the tide recently turning against the rebellion, the no-fly zone and airstrikes against advancing armor and troops are needed more than ever to protect millions of Libyan civilians and help deter the atr

March 21, 2011

[William Pesek] Japan’s ‘BP moment’ troubles global economy

You never want to kick a nation when it’s down. It’s time, though, to consider the depth of Japan’s coming recession. A week ago, before radiation fears prompted a mass exodus from Tokyo, a downturn was of the “if” variety. Japan’s prospects then dimmed with each passing day of blackouts and panicked news reports. The questions now are when the recession will officially begin, how bad it will be a

March 21, 2011