[Christopher Balding] Chinese savers won’t save China

Chinese are, in the popular imagination as well as some economic statistics, inveterate savers. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Chinese savings rate stood at an astonishing 46 percent in 2016, compared to a global average around 25 percent. Chinese planners have long sought to bring that ratio down in order to promote consumption and ease the economy’s overreliance on investment. If only Chinese would shop more, the thinking goes, China wouldn’t need to rely on smokestack facto

July 10, 2018

[Heidi Crebo-Rediker] Chinese money should play by the rules

Global worries over trade wars, central bank rate hikes and geopolitical instability have hammered emerging-market debt in recent months. The fact is, over the past decade, many developing and low-income countries have simply borrowed too much. They borrowed from the markets, from banks and from other countries. In particular, they borrowed from China, which has averaged more than $100 billion in annual financing commitments since 2010. 　Those bills are now coming due. As one of the largest prov

July 9, 2018

[Pankaj Mishra] The kids have their say

The landslide victory of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico’s presidential elections comes two months after the startling return to power in Malaysia of Mahathir Mohamad and, on a smaller scale, a week after the wholly unexpected triumph in a New York Democratic primary of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old novice politician.　What’s strikingly common to the rise of Obrador, Mohamad, Ocasio-Cortez and many other disparate figures is their fervent support among young voters. Many youth tod

July 9, 2018

[Noah Smith] Robots are poised to make life grim for the working class

Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and one of the pioneers of the World Wide Web, once declared: The spread of computers and the internet will put jobs in two categories. People who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do. Andreessen has since repudiated this declaration, and taken a more optimistic stance. But economists, a more pessimistic bunch, are taking the possibility of this sort of bifurcated future more seriously. As machine-learning technology enjoy

July 9, 2018

[Letter to the Editor] An American in Korea on 4th of July

While friends back home in the US set aside, for a day, their ever-expanding political differences to celebrate Independence Day, I am working in a high-rise above an Incheon business district with a birds’ eye view of Costco and Home Depot. It’s a literal and figurative opportunity to look at the American capitalistic spirit from afar, through the lens of Korean society.　America’s post-war industrial influence is evident here; the 10-lane wide highways are labeled with familiar red, white and b

July 8, 2018

[Jay Ambrose] Asian-Americans, Harvard and the future

Everybody knows how President Donald Trump asked for a Muslim ban in his campaign and at least some of us know his travel ban was no such thing. This country did, however, once have a Chinese ban –– people didn’t want them around for mostly bigoted reasons. Thank heavens the population of Asian-Americans from some 20 countries is now booming despite some lingering inhospitality.　We have to watch the generalities –– Asian-Americans are a diverse group and what counts ultimately is individuals --

July 8, 2018

[Christopher Balding] What Trump’s trade war is really about

As the trade war between the US and China escalates, with President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports, both sides are trying to portray themselves as victims of an unconstrained unilateralist rival. They’re both wrong: This dispute is about something much bigger.　For many years, American foreign policy adopted a fairly strong pro-China stance. The US was a major proponent of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and took no direct policy actions in respo

July 8, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Tech giants are stronger than Paul McCartney

The European Parliament’s rejection of new copyright rules shows how difficult it is for regulators to compel the tech industry to pay for content that it uses for free.　The parliament voted Thursday to send a draft Copyright Directive back to the drawing board; a new version will be debated in September. The decision is a disappointment for Paul McCartney, who had urged legislators to pass the measure. It also represents a missed opportunity for news organizations, which would have received a l

July 8, 2018

[Gina Barreca] The power of praise, pride to lift, inspire

Was there a time when hearing the simple phrase “I’m proud of you” made a significant difference in your life?　My family was long on love and short on praise. There were smooches and hugs and pats on the head, but neither my older brother nor I recall that any of the relatives in the immediate family (about 119 of them) ever said, “I’m proud of you, kid.”　They could have said it in three different languages, too, given that the crowd spoke Italian, English and the French of the Quebecois. But th

July 6, 2018

[Tyler Cowen] America’s unhealthy obsession with Supreme Court

Americans’ growing preoccupation with the culture wars has meant a greater focus on the two branches of government where these often symbolic battles are most fought and noticed: the presidency and the Supreme Court. A byproduct is the relative neglect of the third branch, Congress.　This has led to poor governance. Not long ago, the Republicans passed a tax reform bill, in part because they thought voters would like it. Six months later, the bill is losing popularity. The benefits of the bill ar

July 5, 2018

[Joseph J. Ellis] Parsing the ‘pursuit of happiness’

The beauty of all self-evident truths is that, by definition, we do not need to explain why they are true. Our annual celebrations of American independence fit neatly into this mental zone of confident presumptions. To the extent that we think about it at all, the Fourth of July is the time for summer vacation schedules to start, fireworks to appear at dusk and patriotic rhetoric to evaporate amid the airbursts.　It therefore might seem almost rude to suggest that we spend a few minutes asking ou

July 5, 2018

[Erwin Chemerinsky] How that online sales tax ruling will affect you and drag taxes into 21st century

I often observe that the Supreme Court’s rulings affect all of us. That definitely will be true of its decision allowing state governments to require that internet companies collect sales taxes on transactions.　We now may have to pay more when we buy things online, thanks to the June 21 decision; it is estimated that this might generate as much as $33 billion in additional tax revenue for the states. Also it is right as a matter of basic fairness in treating in-state and out-of-state businesses

July 5, 2018