[Kay C. James] Pivotal issues America faces in 2020

As we head into the new year and the kickoff to the Roaring ‘20s 2.0 (and they will roar), policymakers will be faced with some incredibly important decisions. Several issues will take center stage, ones with the potential to significantly shape our future, from immigration reform to college loan debt.Certainly one of the biggest will be the Senate impeachment trial of US President Trump. Although the outcome is nearly certain -- there aren’t enough votes to remove the president from

Jan. 6, 2020

[Hussein Ibish] War with Iran not inevitable

Now that the US has taken out Qassem Soleimani, arguably the most important military figure in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic, conventional wisdom holds that Tehran must respond with extreme prejudice. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has promised “severe retaliation,” and his regime is putting out videos of thousands of Iranian mourners demanding vengeance.What might that mean? Many commentators -- and not only in Iran or the US -- are suggesting that a new war in the Middle

Jan. 6, 2020

[A. Gary Shilling] Simple economics to contain health care costs

Spending on US health care is out of control, expanding steadily from 5 percent of gross domestic product in 1960 to 18 percent in 2018. There are, however, ways to curb the explosion in costs from both the demand and the supply side.Health care costs per capita in the US are almost double those of other developed countries, but life expectancy is lower than many, even South Korea, according to the CIA and Eurostat. Without restraint, costs will accelerate as more and more postwar babies age. Th

Jan. 5, 2020

[Hal Brands] Trump’s Iran policy spirals toward control

The US airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a leader of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, was not simply a sharp departure in the Trump administration’s policy toward Tehran. It also marks a larger shift in America’s response to Iranian influence and provocations in the Middle East. President Donald Trump has gambled that an extraordinary escalation will allow it to reassert control of an intensifying U

Jan. 5, 2020

[Michael R. Strain] Wages are based more on productivity, less on exploitation

“Workers are delivering more, and they’re getting a lot less,” argued former Vice President Joe Biden in a speech at the Brookings Institution this summer. “There’s no correlation now between productivity and wages.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential rival, agrees. Her campaign website states that “wages have largely stagnated,” even though “worker productivity has risen steadily.” The claim that productivity no longer dr

Jan. 2, 2020

[Tyler Cowen] What Trump and Thunberg have in common

In all the “Best of the Decade” lists I’ve been seeing, one topic has been neglected: orators. I’d like to remedy that, noting that I am not necessarily endorsing anything anyone says. “Best” in this context means the most powerful and influential public speaker, not having the most salutary effect on the world.My choice for second place is Greta Thunberg. In little more than a year, Thunberg has moved from being an unheard-of 16-year-old Swedish girl to Time&

Jan. 2, 2020

[Kim Myong-sik] Koreans greet New Year with more fears than hopes

South Korea is a safe place to live. Walking home alone through a back alley at night, one does not have to be too scared, although there’s the chance of confronting a drunkard -- who usually is harmless, however. In daytime, the incidence of pickpocketing or taxi robbery has been remarkably reduced compared with a few decades ago. The ubiquitous CCTV in all parts of the country may have discouraged petty criminals from grabbing money directly but pushed them toward more sophisticated mean

Jan. 1, 2020

[Noah Smith] The middle class risks consuming itself

Americans are increasingly anxious about the costs of services such as health care and education. But these are the very same industries that increasingly sustain the middle class. Resolving this paradox is the key to creating the economy of the future.It’s not much of a surprise to note that prices for most physical goods have dropped, but the costs of big-ticket services have become much higher.As health care absorbs an ever-larger share of national income, many want the government to ta

Jan. 1, 2020

[Robert J. Fouser] The 2020s, a look ahead

In my last column I looked back on the 2010s in South Korea; this time I look forward and offer some predictions for the 2020s. The predictions highlight the challenges that South Korea will face in the new decade.Domestically, the aging of the population and generational change will have a profound influence over South Korean society. By the end of the decade, most of the large post Korean-War baby boom generation will be in its seventies and well into retirement. Meanwhile, most of the politic

Dec. 31, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] Belling the cat in the Year of the Mouse

In the Chinese horoscope, 2020 is the Year of the Mouse. According to the fable behind the horoscope, when the Emperor of Heaven invited 12 animals to his party, the Mouse cunningly tricked the Ox into giving him a lift, and then jumped down at the end to cross the finish line first. Since the Mouse begins the zodiac ahead of the other animals, they say that the Year of the Mouse marks a year of new beginnings. We hope that 2020 will be a year of new beginnings for Korea too.In the horoscope, th

Dec. 31, 2019

Striving for clarity in 2020

The first day of the new year is perhaps one of the most optimistic days of any year, bringing with it a host of new possibilities. “Out with the old, in with the new,” we intone.In this age of befuddlement marked by growing confusion and mounting uncertainties, clarity has become a much-sought-after commodity. The year 2020 rings hopeful -- the very sound of “twenty-twenty” conjures up an image of acuity, sharpness, focus. Hindsight is 20/20, it is said. But what if, in

Dec. 31, 2019

[Tyler Cowen] Women dominated the decade

People react so emotionally to politics, I have decided to assess the decade just past by considering something less partisan but no less illuminating: culture.Start with the music I have been listening to over the last few weeks. Every December I buy the albums that appear on the various “best of” lists. This year my pile of compact discs is mostly music recorded by women -- Billie Eilish, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, Jenny Lewis, FKA Twigs and others.

Dec. 30, 2019

[Noah Smith] Inequality is up a lot. The question is: how much?

Inequality in the US has risen a lot during the past few decades. This has sparked outrage among segments of the public, raised concern among economists and other social scientists, and revitalized America’s socialist movement.Much of the debate has been driven by the work of three French economists -- Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. The trio has put out a huge amount of impressive work, digging into historical archives and patching together a diverse array of modern data

Dec. 30, 2019

[Trudy Rubin] During holidays, here’s how to help refugees

On Dec. 20, in a grim prelude to Christmas, China and Russia vetoed cross-border aid deliveries from Turkey and Iraq to millions of desperate Syrian civilians.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the two countries of having “blood on their hands.” He’s correct, since Russian planes continue to bomb hospitals and markets in rebel-held areas of Syria. What Pompeo didn’t say was that tens of thousands of those refugees are Kurds driven from their homes when President Donal

Dec. 29, 2019

[Pankaj Mishra] Trump’s trade wars expose an abiding truth

As the year ends, a partial and brief cease-fire seems imminent in Donald Trump’s trade war on the world. The United States and China may sign a deal as early as next month. But make no mistake: The protectionist impulse behind the trade war remains as ineradicable as ever.Nor should it be forgotten that economic nationalism has guided the destiny of all major nations since the 19th century. According to the ideological prejudices of the present, built up over nearly four decades of global

Dec. 29, 2019

[Ferdinando Giugliano] Greece gets a dose of McKinsey management

Since the euro crisis earlier this decade, Greece has been the sick man of the monetary union.Athens has at times been in danger of crashing out of the single currency, despite three rescue programs and the restructuring of its sovereign debt. Last year the economy was still 24 percent smaller than it was in 2008. For a long time, it seemed that the best the eurozone could do was to keep propping up Greece to avoid an even bigger problem.Hence it’s remarkable that Greece’s new prime

Dec. 26, 2019

[Lionel Laurent] Macron battles against boomers, pensions

Emmanuel Macron is the first French president in a decade who isn’t a baby boomer, and it shows.The 41-year-old’s battle to reform France’s high-tax, high-spend economy is often fought in the name of generational equality -- largely by tilting the balance away from the elderly in favor of the young. Last year, as a gesture to help young people coming to the job market, the Macron administration hiked social welfare taxes on retirees, an unpopular move that was later reversed in

Dec. 25, 2019

[Adam Minter] In ‘Star Wars’ economy, one thing doesn’t pay

Junk is surprisingly pervasive in “Star Wars,” playing an understated role in nearly every film in the series. In “The Phantom Menace,” we meet young Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, working at a small electronics scrapyard and repair shop. In “A New Hope,” Luke Skywalker’s uncle buys R2-D2 and C-3PO from a group of Jawas, a species that drive massive, sand-crawling junk trucks. The recently released “Rise of Skywalker” is largely a

Dec. 25, 2019

[Conor Sen] Soccer is the future of sports in America

If you’re in the business of professional sports right now, the fundamentals are cause for concern. Attendance is falling, even in the midst of a strong economy. Perhaps some of that decline can be attributed to the improvement in high-definition broadcasting and the prevalence of large flat-screen televisions, which make watching at home a much better experience than in the past.But that wouldn’t explain why TV ratings this season for the National Basketball Association have fallen

Dec. 24, 2019