[Noah Smith] Too many of America’s smartest waste their talents

A high-profile court case about meritocracy and college admissions has captured much attention. A group called Students for Fair Admissions alleges that Harvard University uses highly subjective personality ratings to penalize Asian applicants. The former tend to outperform white applicants on every measure except for so-called personality, but the number of Asian-American students at Harvard has fallen relative to the Asian-American population, while the number for white students has risen, dur

June 21, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Europe and the US could make migration manageable

As the global number of asylum seekers continues to increase, migration is now a political lightning rod on both sides of the Atlantic. And yet politicians don’t seem interested in solving the problem so much as wielding it against opponents.　According to a new European Union report on the asylum situation, 954,000 asylum applicants were awaiting decisions in Europe at the end of 2017, 16 percent fewer than a year earlier. Fewer new applications were lodged, and more of them were rejected as the

June 21, 2018

[Michael Schuman] China should listen to US trade complaints

President Donald Trump and the Democrats can’t agree on anything, except one big thing: China. After the administration announced plans on June 15 to impose tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports, Charles Schumer, the Democrats’ Senate leader, called the decision “on the money.”　 That was a startling statement on a startling fact: China has few friends left in Washington, on either side of the political aisle. The bipartisan vote to block Trump’s compromise on ZTE Corp. sanctions is further e

June 21, 2018

[David Fickling] Get ready, America. Trade war’s coming for your hip pocket

“A wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy,” according to the Chinese general Sun Tzu. “One cartload of the enemy’s provisions is equivalent to 20 of one’s own.”　The lesson of that maxim -- that leaders need to pay close attention to the economics of conflict, and make sure that costs are imposed more on the enemy than the home front -- holds as true today as it did two-and-a-half millennia ago. Washington doesn’t appear to be listening.　The White House’s promise to impose 10 percent

June 20, 2018

[Adam Minter] The robot farm is here

As rich countries welcome autonomous cars, trucks and boats onto their roads and waterways, the developing world is grappling with a humbler revolution: automated farming. What was once the world’s most labor-intensive profession may be soon run by smartphones. And that could change agriculture as profoundly as mechanization did last century.This shift will affect how food is grown and consumed everywhere. But its greatest impact will be in the developing world, where subsistence farms account f

June 20, 2018

[Tyler Cowen] American families shouldn’t be separated, either

One of the worst American policies today is the decision of President Donald Trump’s administration to separate many immigrant parents from their children after they illegally cross the US border. Obviously, a case can be made for enforcing the border, but deliberate cruelty is never a good idea. Those children -- innocent victims all of them -- will likely be traumatized for life. I am uncomfortably reminded of the US’ long history of separating parents and children from the days of slavery and

June 20, 2018

[Trudy Rubin] Trump thinks his personal relationships with dictators will save the world. He’s wrong

“We have developed a very special bond,” President Donald Trump said of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the end of the Singapore summit.　The effusive compliments Trump showered on Kim were endless: “He’s got a great personality. He’s a funny guy, a tough guy, he’s very smart, he’s a great negotiator. He loves his people.　“He trusts me and I trust him.”　And thus was born the latest Trump bromance with a foreign strongman he wooed at a summit. First there was Xi Jinping, now Kim, next, probably

June 19, 2018

[Steve Chapman] How Republicans went soft on communism

If you had told Ronald Reagan in 1988 that in 30 years, the president of the United States would be chummy with communist dictators in China and North Korea, eager to please a brutal Kremlin autocrat and indifferent to the needs of our military allies, he might have said: That’s what you get for electing a Democrat.　Today’s Republicans make up a party he wouldn’t recognize. For decades, the Russians and Chinese dispatched spies and enlisted American sympathizers to try to harm the United States

June 19, 2018

[Maude Lavanchy and Willem Smit] How expensive is the World Cup?

Every four years, as football fans gear up for the World Cup, researchers engage in a game of their own: trying to determine just how costly the tournament is to employers and economies. Our own contribution to this genre suggests that the calculation is a bit more complex than is generally acknowledged.　To calculate the number of productive hours at risk in this year’s tournament, we assume local office hours are between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and that 50 percent of each country’s workforce will be

June 19, 2018

[Jay Famiglietti] Our dismal water future, mapped

Satellite data and images are provocative, even disturbing. They confront us with a global view that can be at once breathtaking, like a piece of art, and yet, in this era of rapidly changing climate, they paint a picture of the demise of the environment. How and if we will respond to what we see is uncertain. That uncertainty lies at the root of our perilous future.　Last month, my colleagues and I published a report the centerpiece of which is a global map, derived from satellite data, that sho

June 18, 2018

[Conor Sen] Hosting World Cup is US’ chance at redemption

The success of North America’s bid to host the 2026 World Cup is one hopeful sign that the US and its neighbors could be ending the era characterized by dysfunctional governance, infrastructure neglect and a withdrawal from the world stage. For the first time in ages, America has something to look forward to.　Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the world has seemed zero sum, divided into winners and losers: the political extremes of left and right, terrorism versus nations, the wealth of the ho

June 18, 2018

[Doug Rand and Stuart Anderson] Doesn’t Trump’s America need more entrepreneurs?

Theoretically, the Trump administration’s immigration policy is based on two core principles: upholding the rule of law and promoting a “merit-based” system that’s good for the economy.　So why has the Department of Homeland Security just proposed to scrap the International Entrepreneur Rule, a late-Obama program intended to lure the world’s most promising entrepreneurs to create companies and jobs in America rather than elsewhere?The department doesn’t dispute the lawfulness of the program, whos

June 18, 2018