[Noah Smith] Libertarianism’s time has come and gone

Stanford historian Ian Morris is fond of saying that “each age gets the thought it needs.” According to this maxim, ideas like the Enlightenment, communism or even Christianity are a product of the economic and political circumstances of their times.It’s easy to believe that libertarianism might have been a good fit for the late 20th century. Coming out of World War II, governments were huge, bureaucratic and militaristic. The Soviet Union and Mao’s China were implementing particularly destructi

Oct. 19, 2016

[Rachel Greszler] US overtime rule will ruin workplace flexibility 　

You’ve probably heard about employers that block workers’ access to personal email accounts on work computers. But now, thanks to a new Department of Labor overtime rule, some employers are blocking workers’ access to work emails after hours.Why? Because although many employers probably want employees to be able to check work email whenever they want, they don’t want to be forced to pay employees time and a half for doing so, which is what the overtime rule mandates.Under the new rule, employers

Oct. 18, 2016

[Justin Fox] The cities that Uber and Lyft are changing

Uber now offers rides in more than 200 US cities. Rival Lyft does too.But Uber gets an estimated 60 percent of its US revenue from just five metropolitan areas (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington), according to a new report from the research firm 7Park Data. You can see a similar regional concentration in ride-business data released this week by the Brookings Institution.Brookings senior fellows Ian Hathaway and Mark Muro gathered these numbers (and similar data on the

Oct. 18, 2016

[Leah Yoon Frelinghuysen] Out of many, one

I was admiring the silk damask wallpaper woven in 1898 in our historic inn’s dining room at the end of a cozy family dinner when you found a way to disturb my reverie with your appalling confrontation. I try to imagine how our table looked to you. An Asian woman speaking in a slightly elevated voice to her elderly Asian grandmother in a room filled with more guests who looked like you than us. And I realize you took the opportunity to approach me only after my Caucasian husband left the dining r

Oct. 18, 2016

[Paula Moore] Will others follow the Netherlands in phasing out animal experimentation?

In a groundbreaking move, the Dutch government recently announced it is working to end all experiments on animals. The Netherlands had already passed a motion in parliament to phase out experiments on nonhuman primates, and now its goal is to be using only human-relevant, nonanimal testing methods by 2025. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals UK scientists have met with government officials and provided a 70-page document outlining areas of experimentation that can be ended immediately an

Oct. 18, 2016

The Duterte dilemma: extreme but popular

The practices and the words of relatively new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, present a problem for the United States in its relations with that country. What he does, what he says and what may be a tendency on his part to try to play the United States off against China and Russia in East Asia could become a problem.At this point, given the long-standing although complex relationship between the Philippines, a nation of nearly 100 million, and the United States, at least two quest

Oct. 18, 2016

[Lee Hye-jin] Things you need to know about GMOs　

Since we became wealthy enough not to worry about where the next meal comes from, our collective anxiety with food has moved on to its quality along the food supply chain. Among the core concerning issues are agro-chemical use, pathogen contamination, ingredient adulteration, country-of-origin deception, inferior nutrition and downgraded taste. 　However, few issues might cause a stronger jolt than the term “genetically modified organisms,” though in many cases we may not know exactly why our ala

Oct. 17, 2016

[Shashi Tharoor] India stops turning the other cheek

 For two and a half decades, Pakistan has pursued a policy of inflicting on India “death by a thousand cuts” - bleeding the country through repeated terrorist attacks, rather than attempting an open military confrontation which it cannot win against India’s superior conventional forces. The logic is that India’s response to this tactic would always be tempered by its desire not to derail its ambitious economic development plans, as well as the Indian government’s unwillingness to face the risk o

Oct. 17, 2016

Bob Dylan, Nobel laureate? It’s not so strange, really

Pop songs as literature? Bob Dylan as a Nobel laureate? What is this world coming to?　But it’s not so strange. The permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awarded Dylan the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, compared him to Homer and Sappho, and it’s a fact that great literature has its roots in lyrics that were set to music and transmitted from town to town and from generation to generation by a succession of minstrels, troubadours, cantors and choirs. And then records, radio and

Oct. 17, 2016

The US Can’t Wash Its Hands of Yemen’s War

It may be morally satisfying to demand that the US cut off its military support of the Saudis for their disastrous involvement in Yemen’s civil war. But if the goal is to end the violence and provide some humanitarian assistance -- and it should be -- then that assistance may be the best leverage the US has against Saudi Arabia’s recklessness.　The US can hardly wash its hands of the conflict, which pits Houthi rebels and their Iranian backers against Yemen’s ousted government and its Saudi-led a

Oct. 17, 2016

People suffering in North Korea

I’m writing to express my concern about the human rights of North Koreans responding to the article “North Korean defectors open up online,” published on Oct. 11th, 2016 by Rumy Doo.　I am a South Korean student who has been translating North Korean defectors’ testimonies for the last few months. I’ve learned that North Korean defectors are coming in to the South Korean society and feeling free to tell and share their experiences. While I was translating, I’ve gotten to know a lot about North Kor

Oct. 16, 2016

Two Gandhis: Not all heroes are universally adored

When President Pranab Mukherjee of India visited Ghana in June, he came bearing what he thought was an irresistible gift. To symbolize the friendship between the two countries, Mukherjee gifted the University of Ghana with a statue of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi. The Indian president assumed that the two decades Gandhi lived in South Africa a century ago would generate goodwill thousands of miles away in West Africa today.It didn’t. Last month, professors at the University of Ghan

Oct. 16, 2016

[Jean-Michel Paul] Preparing for the Post-QE World

Over the past eight years, the major central banks have increased their balance sheets to $18 trillion from $6 trillion, predominantly through the purchase of their own government’s bonds. While the Fed has ended its quantative easing program, the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan continue theirs. But those too will eventually come to an end. What happens next will determine whether the world economy is set on a path to real growth or further stagnation.　“Unwinding” these positions -- even

Oct. 16, 2016