[Albert R. Hunt] It’s too late to stop a blue wave, but not for Trump to try

A consensus is building in both US political parties that Democrats are heavily favored to take control of the House of Representatives on Nov. 6 and to pick up half a dozen governors’ offices, while Republicans hang on to their slim Senate majority. But there’s a caveat: Politics is unpredictable with President Donald Trump in the White House.　It would be foolish to rule out the possibility that the prospect of Republican losses in the midterm election will provoke Trump to take some kind of dr

Sept. 11, 2018

[David Ignatius] What’s the right way to deal with life in ‘Crazytown’?

This is indeed “Crazytown,” as a quote from Bob Woodward’s new book describes it, and we are watching a “nervous breakdown.” The problem is that it afflicts the country as a whole, and not just our narcissistic chief executive. President Trump has drawn America with him into “the devil’s workshop,” as Woodward quotes former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus’ description of the presidential bedroom where Trump watches cable TV and composes his late-night and early-morning tweets. These mi

Sept. 11, 2018

[Trudy Rubin] American political drama inspires London theater

As an escape from the relentless political theater in Washington, I took a London vacation.　I love British theater, and, as so often happens in London, the most intriguing shows were political with an eye on events across the pond. The 2008 financial crash, the demise of democracy, immigration, Brexit: the prospects were endless if you could cadge a ticket.　Watching political drama on stage was far more satisfying than the dispiriting reality at home.　I include under “political theater” the bril

Sept. 11, 2018

[Deanna Hartley] Women, are we the ones driving working moms out of the workforce?

As far as you know, I’m just a regular female professional, but what you may not realize is that I’m part of a rising demographic of working women in their 30s who remain childless by choice so as not to derail their slowly rising careers.　I won’t lie, I’ve caught myself at times looking differently at co-workers who were working moms when they established certain patterns: arriving late to work, abusing work-from-home policies, taking frequent extended lunch breaks, dashing out of or canceling

Sept. 10, 2018

[J. Bradford DeLong] For whom the climate bell tolls

Scarcely had I begun my first lecture of the fall semester here at the University of California, Berkeley, when I realized that I was too hot. I desperately wanted to take off my professorial tweed jacket.A tweed jacket is a wonderful but peculiar costume. If all you have for raw material is a sheep, it is the closest thing you can get to Gore-Tex. Not only is it perfect for a cloudy, drizzly climate, it is also surprisingly warm -- wet or dry -- for its weight. In the world before central heati

Sept. 10, 2018

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Trump’s policies will displace the dollar

Back in 1965, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, then France’s minister of finance, famously called the benefits that the United States reaped from the dollar’s role as the world’s main reserve currency an “exorbitant privilege.” The benefits are diminishing with the rise of the euro and China’s renminbi as competing reserve currencies. And now US President Donald Trump’s misguided trade wars and anti-Iran sanctions will accelerate the move away from the dollar.The dollar leads all other currencies in su

Sept. 10, 2018

[Nathaniel Bullard] Why power companies love drones

There are already 170,000 small, unmanned aerial vehicles licensed in the US, and the Federal Aviation Administration predicts another half-million more of them to be airborne by 2022. Drones are everywhere, doing all sorts of things, including delivering hamburgers and beer to golfers. They’re taking group photos, scouting properties and being shot down by neighbors.　They’re also competing, and the competition is serious. Lockheed Martin Corp. has launched a $2 million competition pitting human

Sept. 9, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Germans should review the lessons of Weimar

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made an impassioned call to his compatriots to “show our faces” against a rise in right-wing extremism. The plea is a stark warning that Germany should guard against succumbing to the kind of boiled-frog effect that ended up killing the Weimar Republic in the 1930s. There is some justification for the alarmism.Maas, a member of the Social Democratic Party or SPD, became the German right’s favorite hate figure as justice minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s go

Sept. 9, 2018

[Adam Minter] Secrecy fuels the stench of China’s diseased pigs

An outbreak of African swine fever has China’s meat eaters, investors and bureaucrats in a panic. That should be no surprise: The country is the world’s biggest pork producer and consumer, and has a history of food-safety and health scandals that have fueled public distrust.　The government’s response, in culling 38,000 pigs, has been quick and efficient this time. But public suspicion, fanned by the handling of previous incidents, is running high. Authorities are seeking to censor social media p

Sept. 9, 2018

[Daniel Moss] Skipping Asia summits, at least Trump will do no harm

Donald Trump’s absence from Asia-Pacific summits will do little harm to America’s long-term standing in the region. It might even help.　The president’s decision to skip two international meetings in November was predictably seen as evidence of American neglect of a vital region, underscoring the unilateralist instincts of Trump. The complaints are fair.　But let’s not mistake pageantry for trends that have been building for years and look inevitable. American influence is waning in ways that a fe

Sept. 6, 2018

[Jean Pisani-Ferry] Europe could miss its opportunity for political realignment

“There are two sides at the moment in Europe. One is led by Macron, who is supporting migration. The other one is supported by countries that want to protect their borders.” This is how Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban described the European political landscape during his August meeting with the Lega party’s Matteo Salvini, the strongman in the Italian government. “If they want to see me as their main opponent, they are right,” French President Emmanuel Macron instantly replied.Both Orban a

Sept. 6, 2018

[Shira Ovide] Amazon at $1 trillion is more dream than reality

The stock market is a weighing machine of companies’ potential rather than their current circumstances. That is doubly true for Amazon.　Amazon on Tuesday briefly reached a stock market value of $1 trillion. It’s a meaningless (and unoriginal) milestone but a notable symbol for a company that until recently hardly looked like a world-shaking giant. Amazon’s market cap is six times what it was at this point in 2014, or a gain of $840 billion. It took Google 14 years to reach that stock market valu

Sept. 6, 2018