[Christie Watson] Care is in short supply. Ask nurses

Betty was lying on a gurney in a hospital corridor. She was elderly, frail and shivering with cold. More than that, she was frightened and completely alone.　I took her temperature -- a low temperature being a sign of sepsis in the elderly -- but it wasn’t extreme. She’d been admitted with chest pain and she clutched her chest, starfishing her hand. Betty’s heart wasn’t diseased but it was broken nonetheless: Her husband had died a few weeks earlier of a heart attack. I suspect she hadn’t been ea

May 30, 2018

[Tim Culpan] Beijing’s Foxconn embrace has tinge of desperation

Just look at that list of investors in Foxconn Industrial Internet’s IPO.　It was obvious that Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings would take minor stakes in the Foxconn Technology Group affiliate’s blockbuster Shanghai listing. Those three are in the bottom tier of cornerstone buyers anyway.　Leading the lineup is the Shanghai State Development & Investment, which is subscribing for 73 million shares, or 3.7 percent of those expected to be sold. Central Huijin Investment, China Rail

May 30, 2018

[Albert Hunt] Trump’s Korea blunder worse than it looks

US President Donald Trump thinks he’s a great negotiator, a brilliant bluffer whose gut instincts are so stellar that ignorance of history and refusal to deal with substantive complexities are irrelevant.　That’s why he bragged he’d win the Nobel Peace Prize for his genius in getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. Except, of course, it didn’t. It’s good his Singapore summit with Kim Jong-un was canceled. The larger picture in this and other major issues is how the American president

May 29, 2018

[Letter to the editor] Diplomacy not about winning

The 1987 summit between West-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and East-German leader Erich Honecker in Bonn was criticized as a “victory for Honecker” by conservative West-German media.　Honecker had been invited years before by the previous West-German government, and Kohl had renewed the invitation. Honecker had long wanted to accept, but couldn’t get permission from Moscow. Though the GDR-government was increasingly more closed and inflexible in political and ideological terms than their Soviet o

May 29, 2018

[Daniel Moss] Trade was one of Trump’s targets, but he held fire

Check your calendars. It‘s starting to feel like Jan. 19, 2017.　For all Donald Trump’s bluster on trade, global commerce today doesn‘t look dramatically different from the day before he was sworn in.　US prestige has certainly taken a beating, but Trump hasn’t dismantled the international trading system. That talk of de-globalization looks overblown. Although it‘s hard to keep track of who’s up and who‘s down on Team Trump, it’s tough to say that over the past 16 months hardliners like Peter Nava

May 29, 2018

[Federica Mogherini] Europe and Asia -- together for a more secure world

Europe and Asia have never been so close. Our economies are interconnected; our cultures are interconnected; and our security is connected: we face the same challenges, we confront similar threats, and we share an interest in preserving peace in our regions and international cooperation on a global scale. Today, the foreign ministers of the European Union’s 28 member states have decided that we must enhance our security engagement in Asia and with Asia, as part of a more comprehensive EU-Asia st

May 29, 2018

[Jeffrey Frankel] An economic platform for US Democrats

When American voters head to the polls for congressional midterm elections in November, their choices seem likely to be guided more by “pocketbook issues” than by foreign affairs or President Donald Trump’s scandals. If the Democrats hope to retake control of the House of Representatives, they will need a platform that addresses voters’ economic concerns -- particularly the concerns of many voters who elected Trump in the first place.The conventional wisdom still stands: underlying Trump’s elect

May 28, 2018

[Benjamin Reiss] Sleeping in public is taboo -- unless you’re young, white and privileged

When Yale graduate student Lolade Siyonbola dozed off in a common room of her dormitory during a late-night paper-writing session, she had no idea what her nap would lead to. Another student, perhaps assuming that Siyonbola was an intruder or disturbed at the sight of a black person sleeping in plain view (or both), turned on the lights and told her, “You’re not supposed to be sleeping here. I’m going to call the police.” When the police came, they subjected Siyonbola to an excruciating 17-minut

May 28, 2018

[Sławomir Sierakowski] Will defunding Hungary and Poland backfire?

Discussions surrounding the European Union’s 2021-2027 budget are intensifying, owing to many European policymakers’ insistence that regional development funds be disbursed only to member states that are in compliance with EU rules. Under the Copenhagen Criteria, all member states are required to uphold the institutions of liberal democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights, and protections for minorities.The proposal to attach new conditions to EU funding is directed at the populist go

May 28, 2018

[Faye Flam] How scientists succumb to corruption and cook results

Horrible bosses can cause misery in any kind of business, but in science, they wield uniquely destructive power. In a recent survey compiled by the journal Nature, a number of young scientists reported that they felt pressured to find “particular results” that would presumably please their bosses, as opposed to the truth. That’s a problem for society at large, since it degrades the integrity of research that we’re supporting.　 Last week, a number of experts weighted in for a special section of t

May 27, 2018

[Adam Minter] Fake news laws are fake solution

In the waning days of Malaysia’s recent election campaign, then-opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad was investigated under the country’s anti-fake news law. Had he been charged and convicted, he could have spent as much as six years in prison. Instead, Mahathir was elected prime minister with a pledge to repeal the law.　 After his unexpected success, Mahathir initially seemed to back off his promise; other members of his government have since sent different signals. While Malaysians have many rea

May 27, 2018

[Barry Ritholtz] Never mind the millionaires. Here’s advice from billionaires.

Last month, I described an email that promised vast riches if I would adopt “The Millionaire Mindset.”　This is the sort of silly wishful thinking I hate:　Consider, instead, the Cartesian pitch as applied to self-help being sold today: Just think it and it will happen. This stuff, along with crystals and horoscopes, joins a long list of things that have never been proven to have much value beyond a placebo effect.　Wishful thinking alone is insufficient to get any job done. “All you need is a doll

May 27, 2018

[Anjani Trivedi] Trump’s auto misfire will do nothing for Detroit

The latest salvo in President Donald Trump’s trade war promises to do more damage than good to an already anxious American auto industry.　Trump on Wednesday ordered the US Commerce Department to probe whether auto imports threaten national security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act -- the same executive power he used to apply tariffs on steel and aluminum earlier this year.　The president’s latest idea risks unwinding a global supply chain that powers sales of almost 20 million cars a

May 25, 2018