[Daniel Moss] IMF risks raining on its own pretty good parade

Nobody would ever accuse the International Monetary Fund of getting carried away.Just when we are getting used to the notion of a synchronized global expansion, the lender feels it has to pad its upgraded forecasts with some dampeners. It’s almost as though there is too much good news. That’s a pity.Muffling the good news under warnings and to-do lists risks contributing to the false notion that the modern economy is somehow broken. Growth is on a firmer and broader footing now than at any point

Oct. 11, 2017

[Adam Minter] Why Japan wants your junk

For 30 years China has recycled more cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and old computers than any other nation. By doing so, it’s saved millions of tons of resources and indirectly funded thousands of recycling programs and companies globally. But now it wants to stop. In July, China notified the World Trade Organization that it will soon prohibit the import of many types of recyclables. As a result, recycling programs and companies around the world are scrambling to find new destinations for the

Oct. 10, 2017

[Albert R. Hunt] The fish still stink in Trump’s Washington swamp

When Tom Price was pushed out of his cabinet job last month for sticking taxpayers with $1 million worth of private jet travel, the White House explained that his behavior was unacceptable in an administration devoted to draining the Washington swamp.I wonder where the former health and human services secretary got the notion that it was OK to mix public service and personal privilege. The values of a presidential administration flow from the top. President Donald Trump has been signaling loudly

Oct. 10, 2017

[Ramesh Thakur] Five steps to peace in Myanmar

The humanitarian crisis afflicting Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya has damaged the country’s political stability and shattered its image as a country moving toward democracy. Moreover, it has tarnished the reputation of the government’s de facto leader, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi; called into question the crisis-management credentials of ASEAN and the United Nations; and made a mockery of international institutions for conflict prevention.And yet, for all the woe, a resolution rem

Oct. 10, 2017

[David Ignatius] How subordinates can check an impulsive president

Consider what is, for the moment, an entirely hypothetical question: What might Secretary of Defense James Mattis do if he received an order from President Trump to launch a nuclear attack on North Korea in retaliation, say, for a hydrogen-bomb test that had gone awry?Certainly, Mattis could try to talk the president out of the attack, if he thought the action was unwise. He could request delays to prepare for contingencies or gather intelligence. He could even, perhaps, argue that the action ra

Oct. 9, 2017

[Noah Smith] Japan rises as free trade leader as US sinks

Back in the 1980s or 1990s, few would have predicted that Japan would become the standard-bearer of free trade. This is, after all, the country that once tried to ban foreign-made skis by claiming that Japanese snow was different from snow in other countries.How times have changed. As the US sinks into protectionism, the Land of the Rising Sun is one of the few countries still pushing for trade agreements. Japan recently made a free trade deal with the European Union and is trying to keep the Tr

Oct. 9, 2017

[Baltimore Sun] Outlawing bump stocks isn’t nearly enough

After Las Vegas, it’s nice to see that some Republicans are willing to consider banning bump stocks, the devices Stephen Paddock apparently used to make a dozen semiautomatic assault weapons mimic the firing rate of a fully automatic machine gun. Several top Republican senators and House members who -- it goes without saying -- are normally opposed to anything resembling gun control have said they are open to the possibility. Even the National Rifle Association says it supports additional restri

Oct. 9, 2017

[Albert R. Hunt] Tillerson never had a chance under Trump

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insists that he’s staying at Foggy Bottom following reports that, after one humiliation on top of another from President Donald Trump, he threatened to quit. On PredictIt, a prediction market for politics, people who think Tillerson will be in his present job at year’s end could have put down 71 cents on Thursday morning for a chance to win a buck; a 30-cent wager could win the same dollar if they’re wrong.Go for the bigger payout.Despite Tillerson’s ineptitude a

Oct. 8, 2017

[Adam Minter] China is hoops country

When the Minnesota Timberwolves tip off in a sold-out game against the Golden State Warriors in Shenzhen next Thursday, the most popular jersey worn into the stadium won’t belong to Stephen Curry, Karl-Anthony Towns or even Yao Ming; it’ll be Kobe Bryant’s. The players shouldn’t be miffed, however. The enthusiasm for Bryant -- still the most popular athlete in China, despite his recent retirement -- is evidence of something that’s rarely acknowledged: Basketball, not the soccer so loved by Chine

Oct. 2, 2017

[Bloomberg ] Shinzo Abe’s momentous gamble

If Shinzo Abe wins the snap election he’s just called for next month, he could become Japan’s longest-serving postwar prime minister. A better legacy would be as the man who reshaped the world’s third-biggest economy.Abe came into office pledging first and foremost to transform the economy. He’s made some progress -- bringing more women into the Japanese workforce, improving corporate governance, negotiating (and now, keeping alive) the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and welcoming mor

Oct. 1, 2017

[Noah Smith] Japan has to spend less on well-off elderly

When discussing Japan’s debt, most people get caught up in the issue of fiscal solvency. As everyone by now knows, Japan has a very high level of debt versus gross domestic product:This attention-grabbing number -- about twice the level of the US -- often gets people asking whether Japan will default. Some believe a default is likely when the country runs out of domestic buyers for government bonds, causing interest rates to rise. Others think the Bank of Japan can simply print money and buy gov

Sept. 29, 2017