Slow march to the free market

The World Bank has warned China that its economic growth model, which depends heavily on exports and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), is unsustainable. Though criticized for some past judgments, this advice from the World Bank is sound. It comes in a report, co-authored with the Development Research Center of China‘s State Council, which recommended that Beijing reduce the dominant role of SOEs in order to promote the free market.Having amazed the world with the dramatic results of the economic r

March 6, 2012

Middle-class welfare state is invisible by design

What is a government program? And are you on one right now? Those are the questions Cornell University political scientist Suzanne Mettler has been posing. For her book “The Submerged State,” she asked a scientifically selected sample of 1,400 Americans whether they had ever used a government social program. Only 43 percent copped to having done so. Then she read off 21 social programs, such as Medicare and the home-mortgage interest deduction, and asked the same question again: Have you ever us

March 5, 2012

The forces that hold up Assad’s regime in Syria

After a year of political unrest and thousands of civilian casualties at the hands of government forces, the common assumption is that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of the Syrian people. But the reality is far more complex, with key factions continuing to see their fates as intrinsically linked to the Assad regime’s survival.The core of Assad’s support still lies within the minority Alawite sect, of which he is a member. Many Alawites, who make u

March 5, 2012

We need to make college education more affordable

For Mexican-Americans and others trying to get ahead, education had been the stairway to the middle class. Education meant security and basics such as health insurance. This heaven meant better jobs and a small house for old age.But now this stairway has fallen into disrepair. One rung after another has been destroyed.The first rung was financial assistance. Many Latino students and poor blacks and whites could afford college only through grants and subsidies. But over the last two decades, coll

March 5, 2012

Obama Must Make Red Lines on Iran’s Nuclear Effort Clear to Israel

By many accounts, U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu don’t much like or trust each other. It’s important that they use their meeting on Monday (March 5) to end at least the mistrust. For many months now U.S. diplomacy has been directed as much at stopping an Israeli preemptive military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, as at Iran itself. It’s partly thanks to the tension created by Israel’s threats to act that the Obama administration was finally a

March 5, 2012

A frightening view of government intelligence

As promised in December, WikiLeaks has begun to release a stash of documents related to the modus operandi of the “private intelligence” sector, using Texas-based Stratfor as a case study. Claiming to have hacked Stratfor’s system to obtain millions of private emails, WikiLeaks has just released the first batch ― and what it suggests about the American intelligence community makes me feel as secure as day-old pizza in a frat house.The CIA has long used private intelligence firms for “black ops,”

March 4, 2012

When big business and human rights collide

Among the thousands of interviews I’ve conducted as a human rights investigator over the last 24 years, one of the most difficult was in 1996, outside a refugee camp along the Thai-Burma border. I was no stranger to suffering in my country. I had fled from Burma (also known as Myanmar) just a few years before, escaping the brutal military regime after being arrested and tortured.I had gone to the camp to investigate reports that villages were being uprooted and brutalized to make way for a natur

March 4, 2012

Greeks today might ask: What would Pericles do?

Greek opinion is divided over the government’s plan to offer the Parthenon and other heritage sites as film and photo backdrops to raise revenue during its current economic crisis. “This is sacrilege!” one Greek tour guide protested. But others thought that, humbling though the measure might be, it was at least better than begging for foreign bailouts.For some Greeks, the debate may have evoked a sense of deja vu. Pericles, the great Athenian statesman, also proposed raiding the Parthenon to mee

March 2, 2012

Indonesia’s purchases of arms from abroad

The Indonesian government’s plan to buy 100 used Leopard tanks has sparked debate within the House of Representatives, but apparently the show must go on as part of the country’s long overdue modernization of defense equipment. Deputy Minister of Defense Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin provided the Jakarta Post’s Novan Iman Santosa, Dwi Atmanta and Imanuddin Razak with a broader picture of the issues of primary weaponry system modernisation.Question: What is the latest update on negotiations to purchase sec

March 2, 2012

New vision for reforms

Ideas would be much more important for China than money, former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping told Robert McNamara, the then president of the World Bank, in 1980. The World Bank report, “China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society,” which was released on Monday, bears full testimony to Deng’s prescience. More than three decades of remarkable growth have transformed China, from a largely insignificant player in the global market, into the world’s second largest econ

March 2, 2012

Europe must step up efforts for financial safety net

Further efforts by Europe are indispensable if it is to contain its debt crisis. Japan, the United States and emerging economies took this stern position vis-a-vis Europe during the latest meeting of the Group of 20 economic powers.The G20 meeting, which ended Sunday in Mexico after adopting a joint statement, was participated in by finance ministers and central bank governors of the 20 major economies, including Japan, the United States and the European Union plus China and Brazil.The focal poi

March 2, 2012

Revenge of the ‘super PACs’ against the U.S.

Chalk up another win for the law of unintended consequences. When federal courts ruled in 2010 against restricting donations to political action committees, Republican strategists rejoiced. Here, they thought, was a way for the GOP’s deep-pocketed donors to gain an advantage over President Obama’s fundraising machine.But look what happened. “Super PACs,” as the newly empowered political action committees are known, have mutated like election-year Godzillas, wreaking havoc in an increasingly bloo

March 1, 2012

Hong Kong’s basement-gate points to shaky future

Washington had Watergate, Italy bunga bunga-gate, London Murdoch-gate. Now, Hong Kong brings us basement-gate. It’s a scandal that many of us outside the city of 7 million might find hard to fathom. Henry Tang, the favorite to be Hong Kong’s next leader, has an illegal basement. In my mind, that’s only a problem if you are storing drugs, trafficking humans or evading taxes. For Hong Kong residents squeezed by surging rents and living costs, Tang’s underground aerie, which he built without a gove

March 1, 2012