[Pankaj Mishra] Democracy is on the march

Across the world, from Hong Kong to Ecuador, Sudan to Iraq, angry protesters are filling urban streets and squares, clashing with police, smashing shops and burning tires. They do not have a clear leadership. Yet, even in hopelessly sectarian Lebanon, demonstrators seem defiantly united against their rulers. And they have claimed three major scalps already: the leaders of Sudan, Algeria and Lebanon. Their immediate motivations differ. Public rage was stirred in Lebanon by a proposed tax on Whats

Nov. 4, 2019

[Eduardo Levy Yeyati] Argentina’s narrow path to common ground

Sunday’s victory in Argentina’s presidential elections was both impressive and underwhelming. True, Peronist challenger Alberto Fernandez soundly beat President Mauricio Macri. But not only did Fernandez fail to match his running mate Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s record 54 percent of the vote when she won the presidency in 2011; Macri also bounced back from his disastrous August primary performance, his party scored wins in important cities and provinces and he retained his

Nov. 3, 2019

[Navjot Sangwan] The caste of credit in India

In 1950, the newly independent India officially abolished its caste system and outlawed discrimination against the Dalits, known as “untouchables,” who had been relegated to the bottom of that rigid social hierarchy. This attempt to right historical wrongs was underpinned by a virtuous capitalist vision of thriving Dalit businesses that lifted their owners to a level of social and economic respectability that eroded prejudice against them.But India’s caste system, buttressed by

Oct. 31, 2019

[Jeremy Adelman, Pablo Pryluka] Politics of frustration in Latin America

 All over Latin America, public patience is wearing thin, with violence in Chile and the return to power of Peronists in Argentina. For almost 40 years, leaders and voters have struggled to realign economies with global markets, leavening the adjustment with social policies to protect the worst-off. Center-right and center-left coalitions agreed on broad strokes. While they argued over taxes and other issues, Latin Americans accepted the need for foreign markets and foreign investment.For t

Oct. 31, 2019

[Doyle McManus] Trump and Ukraine: Putin’s got skin in this game, too

It’s only a little over a month since an intelligence community whistleblower turned the Trump administration on its side; it may seem like more. At first, the story seemed straightforward: The informant charged that President Trump had pressured Ukraine’s new president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son and blocked US military aid to force the Ukrainian leader to do his bidding.　But the story has become more complicated along the way. Trump wasn’t askin

Oct. 30, 2019

[Tyler Cowen] How can California be left in the dark?

America continues to innovate wonderfully in cyberspace, but when it comes to solving actual, physical-world problems, its record is deteriorating. The fires in Northern California -- and the resulting power blackouts, affecting millions and running for days on end -- show just how many nodes of failure Americans are willing to tolerate or even encourage.　The practical and moral failings in this matter are so numerous it is hard to know where to start.　How about this: Systemic blackouts are comm

Oct. 30, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] “Animal Farm” still appeals to us in 2019

George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” is widely known as a satirical fable of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Although he was a democratic socialist himself, Orwell was deeply disillusioned by Stalin and communism, because in his eyes the Soviet Union hopelessly degenerated into a ruthless tyranny, a reign of terror and a cult of personality that worshipped its leader.Written in 1945, “Animal Farm” has become a classic today, frequently quoted when people criticize the hypo

Oct. 29, 2019

[Stephen Mihm] Wealth tax could deliver happiness dividend

When a study released earlier this month showed the wealthiest Americans paying a lower tax rate than any other group, Democratic presidential candidates embraced it as a proof that they were on the right track. While their tax-the-rich proposals vow to create a better economic balance, the candidates often pivot to what they would do with the proceeds: Medicare for All, student loan relief, infrastructure repair, and other expensive programs. Those equations have raised serious doubts, and for

Oct. 29, 2019

[Jonathan Bernstein] Why impeachment now?

I suspect that the group of people who didn’t favor impeaching and removing Donald Trump until they read the transcript of his July 25 phone conversation with Ukraine’s president is a very small group indeed.　If that’s so, why is the formal impeachment process happening now -- and why are some Republicans, such as Francis Rooney in the House and Mitt Romney in the Senate, apparently open to it?　Political scientist Matt Glassman floats one theory: that “recent events have

Oct. 28, 2019

[Leonid Bershidsky] Moving Franco’s grave doesn’t make him any less of monster

The Spanish government on Thursday exhumed the remains of the dictator Francisco Franco, who died in 1975, from a mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen near Madrid and took them to a city cemetery where Franco’s wife is buried. It may give Spain’s caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is fighting for re-election, a boost in the polls, but it won’t really put anything right.Franco’s old resting place was probably the most ostentatious of any 20th century tyrant&rsquo

Oct. 28, 2019

[Jeffrey Frankel] a weaponized dollar could backfire

The language of international monetary policy has turned militaristic. The phrase “currency war” has now been popular for a decade, and the United States government’s more recent “weaponization” of the dollar is generating controversy. But ironically, a martial approach could end up threatening the US currency’s global dominance.This is a good time to gauge the relative strengths of the dollar and rival international currencies (meaning currencies that are use

Oct. 27, 2019

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Why rich cities rebel

Three of the world’s more affluent cities have erupted in protests and unrest this year. Paris has faced waves of protests and rioting since November 2018, soon after French President Emmanuel Macron raised fuel taxes. Hong Kong has been in upheaval since March, after Chief Executive Carrie Lam proposed a law to allow extradition to the Chinese mainland. And Santiago exploded in rioting this month after President Sebastian Pinera ordered an increase in metro prices. Each protest has its di

Oct. 24, 2019

[Kim Myong-sik] Growing concern over faltering Korea-US alliance

Concerns are growing here over the future of the seven-decade-old military alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States that is apparently weakening. Signs causing such concerns are abundant.Annual joint exercises of the allied forces, some involving trans-Pacific deployment of troops from the continental US to any part of the Korean Peninsula, have been reduced in scale and duration or outright cancelled. US President Trump called them “provocative” and “waste

Oct. 23, 2019

[Arvind Subramanian] The battle of fading hegemons

Almost a decade ago, China bulls like Martin Jacques and I predicted the rise of the People’s Republic at the expense of a declining United States. Today, with the two superpowers unabashedly jostling for hegemony -- their trade war being just one sign of this -- it is time for a fresh assessment.　It is tempting to view the US-China rivalry as just another superpower transition in a long line going back to the classical shift of power from Athens to Sparta. But this case is different.Tradi

Oct. 23, 2019

[Robert J. Fouser] After the Cho Kuk show

The Cho Kuk show took an unexpected turn after he resigned as Minister of Justice on Oct. 14. During Cho’s 35 days in office, mass demonstrations in favor and against him become common. Supporters gathered in front of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul’s Seocho-dong and opponents gathered across the city in Gwanghwamun. Supporters demanded reforms in how the prosecution does business, whereas opponents demanded his resignation and called for the impeachment of President M

Oct. 22, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] Watching ‘Battleship’ in 2019

Recently, I watched the 2012 Hollywood science fiction action film “Battleship,” which was about an alien invasion and the US Navy’s desperate attempts to stop it. While watching the film, two things caught my attention: The movie was set in Honolulu and it depicted friendship between the US and Japan. Then, it occurred to me that perhaps “Battleship” could be a metaphoric reenactment of the Pearl Harbor surprise attack by Japan in 1941, which ignited the Pacific Wa

Oct. 22, 2019

[Therese Raphael] Johnson has campaign slogan ready

There was very nearly a bedtime Brexit tale that went something like this: And so, finally, the porridge was just right, Parliament ate up Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal and then, satisfied, went to bed. The end.Of course, lawmakers didn’t eat up and this interminable story isn’t over. Saturday’s parliamentary session instead served up another helping of thin gruel to those British voters who just want the whole thing resolved. Rather than the prime minister getting a vote o

Oct. 21, 2019

[Elizabeth Drew] Will Trump be removed from office?

For the first time, reasonable people in the United States have begun to speculate that President Donald Trump could be convicted by the Senate and thus removed from office. The likelihood is still low, but Trump’s position is weakening, and opinion polls are steadily moving against him. It is widely assumed that the House of Representatives will vote to impeach him, sending the question of his presidency to the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is needed and Republicans hold a majority.Trum

Oct. 21, 2019