[Daniel Moss] Japan’s struggles aren’t so unique

Victory in Japan’s battle with too-low inflation looks as elusive as ever. On Thursday, the Bank of Japan pushed back its estimate of when it’ll hit its 2 percent inflation target; the goal now won’t be reached until the year beginning April 2019, according to Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda. The delay would seem to confirm that Japan remains subject to a unique “deflationary mindset” that’s nearly impossible to eradicate.In fact, what’s interesting isn’t how singular Japan’s problems are, but how common.

July 23, 2017

[Adam Minter] China’s cashless revolution

On a recent trip to Shenzhen, in southern China, I came across a subway busker with two tip jars. The first was a cardboard box filled with coins and bills; the second was a small QR code taped to the box that allowed passersby to leave a tip by smartphone. On one level, this was simply smart business: Chinese made around $5.5 trillion in e-payment transactions last year. But it also offered a glimpse of the future.Around the developing world, QR codes are beating out Apple Pay and other brand-n

July 21, 2017

[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] After the siege: the defeat of IS raises new questions about Mosul

The fall of Mosul to a coalition of forces led by government troops and supported by Americans brought to an end a nine-month attack on and siege of the ancient Iraqi city.Mosul had been held by the Islamic State, from which the IS had declared its caliphate, since June 2014. There remain unresolved issues surrounding Mosul. The issue for Americans at this point is the degree to which these questions engage the United States, which still has some 5,000 troops in Iraq. The first of these is futur

July 20, 2017

[Albert Eisenberg] Liberal America has a political violence problem

Hamburg, Germany, July. As world leaders gather for the G-20 summit, far-left “anti-fascist” (Antifa) rioters set fire to cars and property, terrorize residents and injure more than 200 police officers attempting to keep the peace. Did you miss it? CNN’s initial reports referred to the “protesters” as “eclectic” and “peaceful.”But you need not cross the shining seas to experience violence, destruction of property and a general dismantling of liberal values from the political left. You could simp

July 20, 2017

[Eli Lake] Trump just came very close to killing the Iran deal

Under President Barack Obama this kind of thing was routine. Since the Iran nuclear deal was reached in 2015, every few months the State Department would inform Congress that the Tehran government was in compliance.Then Donald Trump was elected president. He had campaigned against the agreement, and many of the top aides he brought into the White House believed the Obama administration had turned a blind eye to Iran’s regional predations to secure a bargain that in the end was harmful to US nati

July 20, 2017

[Sean O’Malley] Moon’s NK policy should link aid to human rights

It did not take long for South Korean President Moon Jae-in to outline his approach for peace on the Korean Peninsula. There is no doubt the future road to peace will be complex with many unforeseen twists and turns, which makes it prudent to recognize that President Moon’s initial offerings are rich with irony and heavy with inconvenient truths.The irony of course is that President Moon is a former human rights lawyer, regarded by many here to have been put in power by candlelight protesters wi

July 20, 2017

[Tyler Cowen] Let robots teach American schoolkids

For all the talk about whether robots will take our jobs, a new worry is emerging, namely whether we should let robots teach our kids. As the capabilities of smart software and artificial intelligence advance, parents, teachers, teachers’ unions and the children themselves will all have stakes in the outcome.I, for one, say bring on the robots, or at least let us proceed with the experiments. You can imagine robots in schools serving as pets, peers, teachers, tutors, monitors and therapists, amo

July 19, 2017

[Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry] Macron caves to the military

French President Emmanuel Macron had steamrolled every adversary in his path -- until he tried to take on the military.Macron has embarked on a spell of budgetary austerity, a move that will hurt growth but is being pursued out of a misplaced desire to meet the European Union’s arbitrary 3 percent deficit target. As part of that effort, the previous government had announced cuts to the defense budget of $968 million for this year, which Macron pledged to uphold.Gen. Pierre de Villiers, the highl

July 19, 2017

[Jonathan Allen] Willingness of Republicans to provide cover for Trump gone

President Donald Trump is losing the Republican Congress.The June 2016 meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, among others, underscores what was obvious to anyone paying close attention to the election before ballots were cast: Russia wanted Trump to win, and Trump wanted Moscow’s help.Until that meeting was revealed, though, there was a little wiggle room for Trump’s reluctant defenders to dismiss evidence of collusion as circumstantial. Now, the

July 19, 2017

[Mohamed A. El-Erian] What a London cabbie taught me about Uber

Much has been said about Uber’s multiple self-inflicted wounds during a period of very rapid growth and that are now being fixed. The reporting and commentary have tended to cloud the extent to which the company’s innovative approach has transformed urban transportation. Last week, on a trip to London, I was vividly reminded of the next stage of this transformation by a traditional London taxi driver.It is not easy to become a London cabbie. Applicants have to go through four years of training t

July 18, 2017

[Charles Wyplosz] Is the shine off Macron?

Emmanuel Macron is on a winning streak. Within a year, he has gone from inexperienced political underdog, with no establishment backing, to President of the French Republic and leader of a newly created political party with an impressive parliamentary majority. Can he keep it up?Macron owes his recent success not just to good luck, but also to his ability to build on any break that came his way. For voters who were feeling mistrustful of the political establishment, he managed to provide an appe

July 18, 2017

[Ramesh Ponnuru] Talk of impeachment is premature

Rush Limbaugh says we are witnessing “a silent coup.” The radio host has sometimes been accused of rhetorical excess, but his claim is based on a demonstrable truth.Many of President Donald Trump’s critics would indeed like “to get rid of him,” as Limbaugh says. A large majority of Democratic voters wants impeachment -- wanted it, in fact, well before the revelation that senior Trump campaign personnel decided to take a meeting after being promised Russian support in taking down Hillary Clinton.

July 18, 2017