[Caroline Baum] Bernanke’s worst nightmare is this man’s boxes

Ben Bernanke arrived at his office a week ago and came face to face with his worst nightmare.Staring out at the Federal Reserve chairman from page C1 of the Feb. 3 edition of the Wall Street Journal was a photo of a man and his boxes. The man was John Anton, founder and president of Anton Sports. The boxes contained his inventory of T-shirts. Because the price was right, Anton borrowed $300,000 at

Feb. 13, 2011

English-only in the United States? Press ‘no’

For years it was a bogeyman for those discomfited by immigration, particularly from Mexico: The United States was evolving into two nations, only one of which would speak English. If it was ever true, which is doubtful, it isn’t now. A 2007 report by the Pew Foundation found that, though only 23 percent of Latino immigrants spoke English very well, the figure rose to 88 percent for their adult chi

Feb. 13, 2011

[William Pesek] Mr. 210% sees M&A boom in Japan as best deflation slayer

Steel company mergers are a little below Timothy Geithner’s radar. Yet the U.S. Treasury secretary should think long and hard about a recent one in Japan.On the surface, Nippon Steel Corp. and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. joining forces to become the world’s second-largest producer isn’t wildly interesting. It’s the “why” below it that’s important: Such deals are now the official policy of a gov

Feb. 13, 2011

[Brahma Chellaney] The mystery of the Karmapa Lama

NEW DELHI ― The seizure by police of large sums of Chinese currency from the Indian monastery of the Karmapa Lama ― one of the most-important figures in Tibetan Buddhism ― has revived old suspicions about his continuing links with China and forced him to deny that he is an “agent of Beijing.”The Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama, and the Karmapa Lama are the three highest figures in Tibetan Buddhism, r

Feb. 13, 2011

Competition feeding drive for healthier food

The broad strokes of the “2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans” report released last week are elegantly simple:Eating is and should be as pleasurable as it is necessary, but we also need to eat less, eat smarter and get more exercise. If we do, we’ll feel better and weigh less, we’ll enhance the development of our children, everybody will be less likely to get chronic, diet-related diseases such

Feb. 11, 2011

U.S. must reverse its image as apologist

While much attention focuses on how gracefully to dislodge President Hosni Mubarak from his 30-year reign, the Obama administration should be asking how U.S. policies helped him remain in office that long to begin with. The United States has grown far too comfortable with an Arab world dominated by unmovable, abusive rulers while assuming that the Arab people couldn’t be trusted with democracy.U.S

Feb. 11, 2011

[Tim Rutten] Beware Islamists in the wings

From the American perspective, the transition now underway in Egypt confirms John Kenneth Galbraith’s famous appraisal of politics as a choice between “the disastrous and the unpalatable.”What the Obama administration must dread is not the prospect of Cairo repeating the disaster that was Tehran in 1979 but St. Petersburg in 1917, when one revolution ― its leadership democratic but hopelessly divi

Feb. 11, 2011

[Editorial] New questions raised about death penalty

Imagine what was going through the mind of Taiwanese Air Force private Chiang Kuo-ching as he was being led to his execution in August 1997. What a horrifyingly surreal moment it must have been for the 21-year-old man to know he was about to die for a crime he did not commit. Stomachs knot and nerves shudder when we visualize the moment Chiang was escorted into the death chamber.The story broke ju

Feb. 11, 2011

[Editorial] Temple of gloom

ASEAN unity is again under strain as Cambodian and Thai troops keep up their animus over an 11th-century temple astride their common border. Ownership of the Preah Vihear Hindu temple had been determined in Cambodia’s favor by the International Court of Justice in a 9-3 vote half a century ago. Why the border squabble should have persisted to this day tells vividly how the emotive weight of histor

Feb. 11, 2011

[Editorial] War only means both countries stand to lose

There are people in both Thailand and Cambodia who want their soldiers to go all the way. The problem is, even though this might bring the territorial dispute to a conclusion, it would only be for the short term. In 10 or even five years, when one side gets weaker or stronger, the conflict will flare up once again. That is absolutely certain, if force is used to settle this conflict.Diplomacy can

Feb. 11, 2011

Women’s right to make reproductive choices

The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act” introduced Jan. 20 in the U.S. House of Representatives is a broad attack on women’s reproductive health care. The talk for the last couple of days has been the bill’s supposed attempt to redefine rape ― limiting a “rape” exemption to “forcible rape” ― but the potential harm to women is larger.The bill would prevent the use of taxpayer funds for abortion

Feb. 10, 2011

[Matthew Lynn] Rich get richer when governments tout austerity

Remember all that stuff about how the credit crunch was going to usher in a new age of austerity? The financial industry would shrink; the gulf between the haves and the have-nots would close; and taxes would rise for the top earners, forcing them to contribute more to society.Well, guess what? It didn’t happen.In fact, we just had a “rich-get-richer” recession. U.K. data suggest the gap between t

Feb. 10, 2011

[Charles King and Rajan Menon] Terrorism meets xenophobia in Russia

If current demographic trends continue, within the next half-century Muslims will constitute a sizable part, perhaps even a plurality, of Russia’s population; indeed, Moscow currently has more Muslim inhabitants than any other European city. And unlike those in Amsterdam or Paris, most of Moscow’s Muslims are citizens, not immigrants ― products of the Russian Empire’s 19th century southward expans

Feb. 10, 2011

[Shahira Amin] Death is small price to pay for Egyptian freedom

“The army is the people’s army and Mubarak is no longer our president!”On the 13th day of the uprising in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the anti-regime protesters’ chants still ring loud.I walk briskly toward the square, past the long queues of people impatiently waiting to get in, and join the protesters who have now set up makeshift camps. Today’s “newcomers” have to pass several security checkpoints b

Feb. 10, 2011