[Ferdinando Giugliano] Italy doesn’t need early elections

Italy’s main political parties are edging closer to agreement on a new electoral law, which could pave the way for an early election in the autumn. In theory, this ought to be good news: Italy faces formidable economic challenges; a newly elected government would have a fresh mandate to deal with them.In practice, however, a snap election is an unnecessary gamble. The vote is likely to result in a hung parliament, leaving Italy exposed at a time of financial turmoil.The case for a snap election

June 4, 2017

[Other view] Trump‘s big Paris mistake

Any rational, responsible business leader, faced with an existential threat to his enterprise, would take steps to manage the risk. With his decision to leave the Paris climate accord, President Donald Trump is putting the lie to one of his central claims: that he would run the country like a business.The 2015 Paris agreement established a global target for lowering greenhouse-gas emissions -- aimed at keeping the atmosphere from warming by 2 degrees Celsius. Nearly all the world’s countries agr

June 4, 2017

[Andrew Wolman] Human rights under Moon Jae-in: five issues to watch

Korea’s most famous human rights lawyer is now its president. This bodes well for the status of human rights in the country. Korea’s reputation for respecting its people’s rights suffered during the last 10 years of conservative rule and Moon Jae-in has entered office with an extraordinarily strong reform mandate.But he will face challenges and tough decisions and will be evaluated on his ability to promote rights even in the face of political obstacles from both conservatives and his progressiv

June 4, 2017

What was Jared Kushner thinking?

It is difficult to understand exactly what motivated Jared Kushner to propose secret back-channel communications with Russia last December. As first reported by The Washington Post last week -- and still not denied by the Trump administration as of Tuesday -- Donald Trump’s son-in-law sought a secure communications channel between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin using Russian communications equipment, which strongly suggests the incoming administration wanted to avoid US intelligence m

June 2, 2017

[Tyler Cowen] Germany is the Silicon Valley of political innovation

One of the more significant quotations of last week came from President Donald Trump, when he reportedly described the Germans as “bad, very bad,” referring to their automobile exports. 　Another take on Germany, articulated by many economists and technology observers, is that the country has quality manufacturing but hasn’t been very innovative in other sectors, and is thus a disappointment.　I’d like to suggest a third view: When it comes to politics and political institutions, Germany’s record

June 1, 2017

[Ramesh Ponnuru] Losing faith in free trade will make Americans poorer

Robert Lighthizer’s nomination as US trade representative made the steel industry happy. Both the Steel Manufacturers Association and the American Iron and Steel Institute put out statements lauding the choice, with the latter citing his “dedication” to the steel industry. US Steel Corp has been Lighthizer’s most prominent client as a lawyer in recent years.　Lighthizer’s confirmation earlier this month placed him in an administration with many others with a history of supporting steel interests

June 1, 2017

[Saliba Sarsar] A plea for peace 50 years after Six-Day War

As a native of Jerusalem, I am acutely aware that this year marks a half-century since the Six-Day War, but I do not wish to write another commemoration of that, or any, war.However, 2017 is a marker of multiple significant anniversaries in the connected history of Palestinians and Israelis: 120 years since the first Zionist Congress, 100 years since the writing of the Balfour Declaration, 70 years since the United Nations General Assembly Partition Resolution, 40 years since the visit of Egypt’

June 1, 2017

[Other view] Brazen in Brazil: Endless corruption at top is reversing progress

Brazil, Latin America’s largest country in population and area, appears to be coming unstuck politically in the face of persistent corruption among its leaders.Brazilians impeached their elected president, Dilma Rousseff, last August, based on what was for Brazil minor budgetary sleight of hand. Now her successor, Michel Temer, 76, is under heavy fire, including vigorous action in the streets, in response to the appearance of a tape in which he appears to approve offering bribes to another jaile

June 1, 2017

[Adam Minter] China’s seniors will reshape the world

For decades, Nestle SA has tried to get its infant milk powder into the hands of China’s new mothers with promises of brighter, healthier babies. Now it’s trying to do the same for the elderly. Last week, the company launched Nestle Yiyang Fuel for Brain senior milk powder, a formula designed to help China’s seniors “refuel their brains and start a new smart life.”　The announcement didn’t get quite the hype that products targeted to China’s millennials do. But it may yet prove more consequential

May 31, 2017

[Ferdinando Giugliano] For Europe, infrastructure is the wrong priority

For the past two decades, the EU has grappled with a productivity slowdown that has kept wages and economic growth in check. Politicians are increasingly mentioning infrastructure as a possible solution: The hope is that building more roads and better bridges can help companies improve efficiency and re-start growth.However, while infrastructure may indeed provide a much-needed stimulus to Europe’s economies, it isn’t the reason why the EU has fallen behind the US in terms of productivity growth

May 31, 2017

[The Baltimore Sun] The new economy is coming

Late May is college commencement speech season and there are always one or two destined to cause upset. This year, add to the list the Harvard commencement speech given Thursday by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his call for “universal basic income,” which is a fancy way of describing a kind of Social Security for all. As might be expected, the tech pioneer was lambasted on such social media platforms as Facebook (which he no doubt appreciated) by conservatives who see universal basic income a

May 31, 2017

[Other view] ASEAN’s fight against terrorism

Whether or not Indonesian nationals are fighting for the terrorist group loyal to the Islamic State group movement against the Philippine Army in Marawi city in the southern part of our neighboring country, the danger of spillover of the conflict into our territory cannot be underestimated.It’s primarily for the sake of our national security and the stability of the Southeast Asian region in general that Indonesia should not let the Philippines walk alone during crises such as this. Indonesia, w

May 31, 2017

[Leonid Bershidsky] ‘Bad Germans’ and other Trump travel blunders

During his first foreign trip since he was elected, President Donald Trump didn’t look too out of place in Saudi Arabia or even in the Vatican. In Brussels, however, he was a befuddled elephant in a china shop, doing his best to convince European leaders that the US was clueless on key cooperation issues.It was bad enough that he shoved aside Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic to be in the front row during a North Atlantic Trade Organization photo opportunity; Markovic, whose country has j

May 30, 2017

[Satyajit Das] Innovation won’t overcome stagnation

Innovation, everybody hopes, will rescue the world from economic stagnation. I’m not so sure.The extent to which an innovation is significant depends on the degree to which it alters existing activity or the performance of a function. It must create related and ancillary activities that in turn lead to employment, wealth and other discoveries in a virtuous circle. It must have longevity, being capable of exploitation over long periods. These characteristics are why the second Industrial Revoluti

May 30, 2017