[Carl P. Leubsdorf] If Trump would stand up to the right wing he could notch some political success

With rare exceptions, Donald Trump has refused to reach out to opposition lawmakers and voters to build a governing coalition that would bolster his prospects for passing his prime proposals.He has paid a political price, exacerbating the existing partisan atmosphere, diminishing his own standing and forcing his congressional Republican allies to rely totally on their own, sometimes divided troops in a way that has proved challenging.Though partisan tension continues to be high, as evidenced by

Oct. 31, 2017

[Noah Smith] Rise of creative class worked little too well

It’s the rare public intellectual who admits to making big mistakes. Usually, the rule is to defend everything you’ve ever said, in an attempt to maintain a reputation for wisdom. Richard Florida, the noted urbanist and professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, is among the select few to go back and reevaluate his big ideas.　In his 2002 book, “The Rise of the Creative Class,” Florida both anticipated and helped promote the trends that would come to define the US

Oct. 30, 2017

[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] Boost to Brexit? Possible Russian role should be checked out

The British are now looking into whether President Vladimir Putin’s Russia intervened in the United Kingdom’s June 2016 referendum on continued membership in the European Union. “Brexit” won with about 52 percent, but it’s unclear whether Russian interference in the affair, through social media buys or other means, made a difference. Many people in Britain long have had reservations about integration and complaints about the EU, so the outcome did not come as a shot from the dark.At the same tim

Oct. 30, 2017

[Doyle McManus] If Trump tax plan passes, don’t count on raise

President Donald Trump and his Republican allies face a basic problem as they try to build public support for a cut in corporate taxes: Most Americans think big businesses pay too little in taxes, not too much. So the president and his staff decided to rebrand the proposal. Don’t think of it as a tax cut for corporations, they argue; think of it as a pay increase for ordinary workers.“The average American family would get a $4,000 raise under the President’s tax cut plan,” Trump’s spokeswoman, S

Oct. 30, 2017

[Christopher Balding] Can China inflate its debt away?

China is witnessing something most of the world’s major economies haven’t seen in quite some time: rising prices. With growth strong but debt at perhaps 300 percent of gross domestic product, that’s a welcome sign. The danger is that China’s government now hopes inflation will solve its other problems.From 2013 until this year, the GDP deflator, a broad measure of prices, never rose by more than 2.3 percent. Most of the time, it hovered just above zero. This pushed up the real cost of China’s de

Oct. 30, 2017

[Edward Niedermeyer] Silicon Valley learns to play nice with Detroit

Ever since Silicon Valley’s autonomous cars and mobility apps captured the public imagination, so too has the prospect of an epic battle -- between the forces of high industry and high technology. Nurtured in part by recent history and in part by the part of our brains that loves to watch a good fight, the expectation of an auto-versus-tech throwdown has already become nearly inescapable.　And yet, after the first exchange of rhetorical salvos and billion-dollar investments, there are already sig

Oct. 30, 2017

[Christine M. Flowers] Is #Metoo a modern version of the Salem witch trials?

It’s been a little over a week since the #Metoo campaign found its mojo, prompting social media to erupt in a “girl power” storm of women who decided that enough was enough. I wrote about it in my last column and really had no intention of returning to the same trough so soon.But I simply can’t ignore what is happening with this sexual assault business, and at the risk of getting more hate mail (and a few timid “attagirls!”) this week’s column is going to be #Metoo 2.1.Or, as I prefer to call it

Oct. 30, 2017

[Cass R. Sunstein] Nudges made British life better

Just a few days after Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in economics earlier this month, the UK’s Behavioural Insights Team released its annual report. What good timing! Thaler helped inspire the creation of the Behavioural Insights Team in 2010, not only with his academic work, but also by numerous (and continuing) discussions with the team.　Drawing on work in psychology, Thaler showed that people don’t always make fully rational choices, and that their decisions can be greatly affected by app

Oct. 27, 2017

[Editorial] Surprise growth

The South Korean economy grew by a surprising 1.4 percent in the third quarter this year.According to data released by the Bank of Korea on Thursday, the gross domestic product growth rate for the third quarter more than doubled that for the previous quarter, which was 0.6 percent. It also hit a 29-quarter high, last topped by 1.7 percent growth in the second quarter of 2010.The third-quarter figure far exceeded forecasts that ranged from 0.8 percent to 0.9 percent.With this, it seems certain th

Oct. 27, 2017

[John M. Crisp] Trump’s emotional maturity falls short again

Last week, a National Public Radio reporter interviewed a woman whose sister’s family -- as well as her home -- had been destroyed by the recent wildfires in northern California.It’s a devastating story, hard to listen to: The Shepherds lived in Redwood Valley, deep in the forest. They had built their dream home and hoped to raise their children in a natural setting, away from the city. When the fire swept through with almost no warning, they tried to escape on a long, unimproved road but were o

Oct. 26, 2017