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

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

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

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

The liberal world order, insofar as it still exists, is about rules and conditionality: If you stay on the righteous path, you’ll get help. On Tuesday, former US Vice President Joe Biden explained how this worked for Ukraine while he was the Obama administration’s point man on the rebellious post-Soviet nation. The reminiscences should serve as a cautionary tale for International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, who met Wednesday with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Davos to discus

Jan. 28, 2018

The choreography could not have been better this week. The leaders of the eurozone’s three largest economies took the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos one after the other to deliver the same message. In the era of Donald Trump’s “America First,” the leaders of Italy, Germany and France all spoke up to oppose protectionism and embrace multilateralism.Cooperation will start at home, they pledged: the euro area will strive to forge closer ties starting this year. As French President Emman

Jan. 28, 2018

It has always been challenging for a South Korean president to host a visiting Japanese prime minister. It will be the same when President Moon Jae-in receives Shinzo Abe in Seoul in about two weeks. The Japanese leader will be coming to Korea to attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. This normally be a ceremonial, goodwill event, but a reignited feud over the “comfort women” issue and the North Korean nuclear crisis threaten to make Abe’s visit more of a diplomatic chal

Jan. 26, 2018

Legislation requires bargaining, and bargaining requires bargaining chips, which are evaluated, offered, withdrawn and exchanged until consensus is achieved.　Give me more rights to offshore drilling, and I’ll support your position on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization. Give me more money for border security, and I’ll vote for higher auto gas mileage standards. And so on.　But it’s worth remembering that all bargaining chips aren’t identical. Some are theoretical or take effect

Jan. 26, 2018

Whose fault?　Who cares?　Schumer Shutdown? Trump Shutdown? Honestly, it doesn’t matter. The brief US government shutdown that started at midnight on Friday and ended on Monday won’t even rate an asterisk in history books, while the weekend’s other big story — the second annual wave of women’s marches that swept hundreds of thousands of women and men into city streets coast to coast — merits a mention in any chapter on our “Me Too” era of empowerment.　Let’s be clear: The women’s marches were a sig

Jan. 25, 2018

I recently returned from three weeks in southern Africa. Though we have always been a traveling family, we had a specific purpose for this trip: to spend time with our son serving in the Peace Corps in Namibia.　After traveling through Zambia and Namibia, we ended in Cape Town, South Africa. There, I was struck by a message on a tourist bus: “Go places. Prosper.” And at the airport, Mark Twain’s famous quote that “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness” was displayed at the

Jan. 25, 2018

Talking with Gen. Joseph Votel, the commander of American troops in the Middle East, is a paradoxical reminder of the limits of US military power to determine political outcomes. American bombs helped destroy the Islamic State group in Syria, but they can’t stitch the rag doll of the Syrian nation back together.Syria’s plight actually got a bit worse this week, as Turkey invaded the border region known as Afrin. Turkey says it’s protecting itself against the Syrian Kurdish organization known as

Jan. 25, 2018