[Trudy Rubin] Will anyone save Syrians in Idlib from possible massacre by Putin, Assad?

The world is watching as Russia and the Syrian regime prepare to unleash the biggest bloodbath yet in the Syrian saga of horrors. Yet no one seems to know how to prevent a massive attack on Idlib, the last Syrian rebel-held stronghold, where nearly a million civilians are trapped.　UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres just warned that a full-scale Russian assault on Idlib “would unleash a humanitarian nightmare unlike any seen in the blood-soaked Syrian conflict.” Moscow rebuffed the pleas of Gu

Sept. 16, 2018

[Anjani Trivedi] China’s imperial growth delusion just won’t die

The big state-owned Chinese enterprise is back. But this time, it isn’t looking sturdy enough to prop up the economy.As growth stumbles, Beijing is falling back on a tried and trusted solution: using large, government-backed companies to spur activity. That’s squeezing out private and small firms.　The economy certainly merits concern. Trade frictions and Beijing’s crackdown on the underbelly of the financial system have combined to sap confidence. Higher borrowing costs, weak household spending

Sept. 13, 2018

[Fu Ying] How should China respond to a changing US?

Visiting the US recently, I was told by virtually every American I met that attitudes toward China had shifted. This phenomenon, they claimed, cut across bipartisan lines as well as government, business and academic circles. The US was frustrated at not having shaped China in its own image, despite bringing the country into the World Trade Organization and helping to enable its economic takeoff. Instead, China had “ripped off” the US by taking advantage of it in trade and business. There was con

Sept. 12, 2018

[Zack Wasserman] Russian hijacking of US tech didn’t start with Facebook

The 2016 presidential election wasn’t the first time Russia attempted to use Silicon Valley and its technologies against the US. During the 1980s, Soviet spies plied their trade up and down the San Francisco peninsula, stealing technology, recruiting agents and infiltrating local banks. It’s worth remembering that those efforts were ultimately thwarted and may have contributed in a small way to the collapse of the Soviet Union.　The episode almost 40 years ago even inspired an otherwise forgettab

Sept. 12, 2018

[Nicolas Loris, Katie Tubb] Coal and nuclear industries: Avoiding duct-tape solution

We’ve all been there. Something breaks in your home or knocks your car bumper loose, so you turn to every American’s trusted helper: duct tape. But while duct tape may offer an easier, quick-fix solution, it doesn’t fully solve your problem, no matter how many new layers you slap on.Similarly, the Trump administration is offering a duct tape solution to bail out struggling coal and nuclear power plants. A taxpayer- and ratepayer-funded lifeline may help certain plants in the short-term, but Cong

Sept. 12, 2018

[Albert R. Hunt] It’s too late to stop a blue wave, but not for Trump to try

A consensus is building in both US political parties that Democrats are heavily favored to take control of the House of Representatives on Nov. 6 and to pick up half a dozen governors’ offices, while Republicans hang on to their slim Senate majority. But there’s a caveat: Politics is unpredictable with President Donald Trump in the White House.　It would be foolish to rule out the possibility that the prospect of Republican losses in the midterm election will provoke Trump to take some kind of dr

Sept. 11, 2018

[David Ignatius] What’s the right way to deal with life in ‘Crazytown’?

This is indeed “Crazytown,” as a quote from Bob Woodward’s new book describes it, and we are watching a “nervous breakdown.” The problem is that it afflicts the country as a whole, and not just our narcissistic chief executive. President Trump has drawn America with him into “the devil’s workshop,” as Woodward quotes former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus’ description of the presidential bedroom where Trump watches cable TV and composes his late-night and early-morning tweets. These mi

Sept. 11, 2018

[Trudy Rubin] American political drama inspires London theater

As an escape from the relentless political theater in Washington, I took a London vacation.　I love British theater, and, as so often happens in London, the most intriguing shows were political with an eye on events across the pond. The 2008 financial crash, the demise of democracy, immigration, Brexit: the prospects were endless if you could cadge a ticket.　Watching political drama on stage was far more satisfying than the dispiriting reality at home.　I include under “political theater” the bril

Sept. 11, 2018

[Deanna Hartley] Women, are we the ones driving working moms out of the workforce?

As far as you know, I’m just a regular female professional, but what you may not realize is that I’m part of a rising demographic of working women in their 30s who remain childless by choice so as not to derail their slowly rising careers.　I won’t lie, I’ve caught myself at times looking differently at co-workers who were working moms when they established certain patterns: arriving late to work, abusing work-from-home policies, taking frequent extended lunch breaks, dashing out of or canceling

Sept. 10, 2018

[J. Bradford DeLong] For whom the climate bell tolls

Scarcely had I begun my first lecture of the fall semester here at the University of California, Berkeley, when I realized that I was too hot. I desperately wanted to take off my professorial tweed jacket.A tweed jacket is a wonderful but peculiar costume. If all you have for raw material is a sheep, it is the closest thing you can get to Gore-Tex. Not only is it perfect for a cloudy, drizzly climate, it is also surprisingly warm -- wet or dry -- for its weight. In the world before central heati

Sept. 10, 2018

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Trump’s policies will displace the dollar

Back in 1965, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, then France’s minister of finance, famously called the benefits that the United States reaped from the dollar’s role as the world’s main reserve currency an “exorbitant privilege.” The benefits are diminishing with the rise of the euro and China’s renminbi as competing reserve currencies. And now US President Donald Trump’s misguided trade wars and anti-Iran sanctions will accelerate the move away from the dollar.The dollar leads all other currencies in su

Sept. 10, 2018

[Nathaniel Bullard] Why power companies love drones

There are already 170,000 small, unmanned aerial vehicles licensed in the US, and the Federal Aviation Administration predicts another half-million more of them to be airborne by 2022. Drones are everywhere, doing all sorts of things, including delivering hamburgers and beer to golfers. They’re taking group photos, scouting properties and being shot down by neighbors.　They’re also competing, and the competition is serious. Lockheed Martin Corp. has launched a $2 million competition pitting human

Sept. 9, 2018