[Jonathan Bernstein] Trump’s insubstantial State of the Union

This was a long, long, long State of the Union speech. It was heavy on traumatic stories of guests in the gallery, and light -- in most cases, extremely light -- on the policies that would turn words into action.　As a piece of rhetoric, Trump’s speech was dull, albeit no duller than most State of the Union speeches. Presidents usually struggle to rise above this annual occasion even if they are good at soaring -- and soaring is not Trump’s strength as a public speaker.It stood out mostly for the

Feb. 1, 2018

[Adam Minter] Don’t fear China’s takeover of the Arctic

Last week, China said it plans to build a “Polar Silk Road” that will open shipping lanes across the largely pristine region at the top of the world. It’s an ambitious idea for a country that lacks an Arctic border, and it has raised concerns around the world about China’s ultimate intentions and its capacity for environmental stewardship. Although these are reasonable worries, they’re almost certainly overblown.　In theory, melting Arctic ice will create a significant economic opportunity. By on

Feb. 1, 2018

[Rohit Jigyasu] Reducing risks to cultural heritage from disasters

Each year disasters caused by natural and human induced hazards cause enormous damage to cultural heritage, which include historic buildings, urban areas, museums, libraries and archives depriving communities of their irreplaceable cultural assets. Moreover, damage to cultural landscapes and local flora and fauna in general cause loss of valued ecosystem services, thereby putting sustainability of local communities at risk. Often disasters also affect the intangible cultural heritage of traditio

Feb. 1, 2018

[Rana B. Khoury] Tillerson’s magical thinking on Syria

In a speech at Stanford recently, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson outlined “the way forward” for the United States in Syria. He announced that the US military would have an open-ended presence inside the country and envisioned a Syria free of the Islamic State group, al-Qaida, Iran, weapons of mass destruction and President Bashar Assad. He also laid out a “new” strategy to achieve all this: Buttressed by its military, the US will expend diplomatic energy on stabilization programs and the UN-le

Jan. 31, 2018

[Peter Tasker] Kuroda deserves a second term as Bank of Japan governor

The re-election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in October was welcomed warmly by stock market investors. The reappointment of Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda to another five-year term starting this April would also be viewed as a reassuring sign of policy continuity.The Japanese tradition of naming economic expansions after Shinto deities dates back to the 1950s. A fitting name for the current period of growth, already the second longest since the war, might be the “Amaterasu boom,” a reference

Jan. 31, 2018

[Patrick Sharkey] Community investment, not punishment, key to reducing violence

For more than four decades, the US’ national approach to addressing crime and violence has focused on punishment.　Police forces have grown larger and more militant, prosecutors have become more aggressive, and criminal justice policies have gotten increasingly harsh. As a result, the United States has unprecedented rates of incarceration. There are almost 7 million Americans under the supervision of the criminal justice system — in jails, in prisons, on probation or on parole.　In part because vi

Jan. 31, 2018

[Virginia Postrel] Youth! Street life! The case for crowded neighborhoods

California Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, has introduced a bill that could significantly ease the state’s urban housing crisis.Wiener’s bill would essentially prohibit cities from acting like suburbs, forcing them to allow builders to line their wide boulevards with medium-rise apartment buildings. SB 827 would forbid cities from imposing controls such as density and parking requirements on new residential construction within 805 meters of a major transit station or 400 meters from

Jan. 30, 2018

[Tracy Chen] To understand China’s growth, look at its tourists

If you want to gauge how Chinese consumers are reshaping the world, look at how many of them are leaving China.　For vacation, that is. Outbound Chinese tourism has enjoyed explosive growth over the past decade and there’s plenty more where that came from: only 5 percent of the Middle Kingdom’s citizens hold a passport, compared with 40 percent in the US. That’s a lot of ground to make up and suggests this boom has some staying power.　Investors would do well to focus on the beneficiaries, and not

Jan. 30, 2018

[Megan McArdle] Ode to washing machine

The washing machine is the unsung hero of the feminist revolution. There’s a lively argument that the washing machine is actually what enabled the average woman to work outside the home. When finally adopted, it certainly liberated women from the brutal labor involved in doing laundry with lye and a washboard. (Now we complain about the comparative delights of folding the stuff!)These days, according to the US census, more than 85 percent of American households have a washing machine. Almost all

Jan. 29, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Release Dutch evidence of the DNC hack

For the first time in a year, significant new information has emerged linking the 2016 US Democratic National Committee security breach to Russia. A newspaper in the Netherlands reports that US authorities received evidence of the hack from the Dutch intelligence service, which had penetrated the Russian hackers. The report partly explains the US intelligence community‘s certainty about what happened to the DNC and its reluctance to tell the public more. But it also raises new questions.The stor

Jan. 29, 2018

[Michael Pettis] Protectionism can’t fix trade imbalances

Donald Trump’s administration last week announced new tariffs on solar panels and washing machines. It has hinted at more to come. The rationale for these measures is that they’ll reduce American trade deficits -- in particular, the widening deficit with China -- and thus benefit the US economy. Rather than take Washington’s assumptions at face value, however, we must consider how protectionism affects capital flows.　Policymakers largely ignore the indirect impact of trade intervention on capita

Jan. 29, 2018

[Noah Smith] Gene editing needs to be available to everyone

When I was growing up, the idea of re-engineering human DNA was a staple of science fiction. Now, it’s a reality. Adult gene therapy -- editing the genome of a person -- is expected to soon be a treatment option for a number of otherwise intractable diseases. Meanwhile, scientists have successfully edited the DNA of human embryos, raising the possibility that parents might be able to modify their children’s genomes to save them from inherited diseases.　Much of the change from science fiction to

Jan. 28, 2018