The Asia Cooperation Dialogue should prove its worth

We will be watching closely as the leaders of 34 countries assemble in Bangkok on Saturday for a three-day summit of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue. It is only their second meeting in the forum’s 14-year history, but that’s not the reason why little, frankly, seems to have been accomplished.　The gathering will at least boost the international stature of Thailand’s military-run government, and other benefits are possible, yet hopes are not high. Since its inauguration in Cha-Am in 2002, the ACD ha

Oct. 6, 2016

India’s cautious Kashmir solution

With a strike this week across the de facto border in Kashmir, India appears to have found a new way to respond to attacks by Pakistan-linked militants. Its government should be wary of overestimating the scale of its victory, though, or underestimating the scope of the challenges that remain.That’s not to say India doesn’t deserve credit for its deft handling of the latest confrontation between South Asia’s nuclear-armed neighbors. After Pakistan-linked militants killed 19 Indian soldiers in Ka

Oct. 5, 2016

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] From arms to education for sustainability　

The United States needs to shift its spending from war to education, from CIA-backed regime change to a new Global Fund for Education. With hundreds of millions of children around the world not in school, or in schools with underqualified teachers, a lack of computers, large class sizes and no electricity, many parts of the world are headed for massive instability, joblessness and poverty. The 21st century will belong to countries that properly educate their young people to participate productiv

Oct. 5, 2016

Hoping Clinton changes her mind on TPP

Washington state residents must hope that Hillary Clinton is pulling our leg and will end up supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership if she’s elected president.This is a sorry state of affairs: Hoping a politician flip-flops.Yet the alternative is sadly much worse. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has threatened to scrap existing trade agreements if they can’t be reworked and raise tariffs. Instead of restoring jobs across the heartland, this would start a punishing trade war just as the e

Oct. 5, 2016

Hungary’s hubris: Rejecting EU obligation to migrants is ahistorical

Hungarians voted in a referendum Sunday to support Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s policy of trying to keep migrants from war-torn countries to the east out of Hungary. The vote in favor was about 92 percent, but the 3.3 million who came to the polls were too few, representing 40 percent of registered voters; Hungarian law requires a 50 percent turnout for such a measure to become operative. Orban’s government has signaled its intent to go ahead anyway, in defiance of the law.European Union planni

Oct. 5, 2016

[Jean Pisani-Ferry] Election geography of whom you vote for 　

PARIS -- In many countries, where you live tends to be an accurate predictor of what or whom you are voting for. This was most evident in the maps of the electoral geography of voting for “Leave” and “Remain” in the United Kingdom’s June referendum on European Union membership. A similar pattern can be found in the distribution of votes in the 2012 US presidential election or in French support for Marine Le Pen’s National Front in the 2015 regional elections. It is very likely to be found in the

Oct. 4, 2016

A call for de-escalating tension in Kashmir　

India and Pakistan perpetually shift between a steady simmer and a roiling boil. When relations reach the latter extreme, Kashmir quite often fans the flames.　Tension between the two nuclear-armed archrivals is at the highest it’s been in years, following a Sept. 18 attack on the portion of Kashmir controlled by India. Eighteen Indian soldiers were killed. India says the raid was carried out by a Pakistani militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and further asserts that the militants were actively sup

Oct. 4, 2016

No matter what, there should be no war

Nearly one and a half billion people in the two countries of India and Pakistan appear to be held hostage to conspiracy, rumour and reckless warmongering, and this needs to be stopped immediately. 　On Thursday, 11 days after the Uri attack and seemingly an eternity in Pak-India sabre-rattling and diplomatic tensions, another layer of confusion and chaos was added to one of the world’s most complicated bilateral relationships. 　With the facts of the Uri attack yet to be established or shared with

Oct. 4, 2016

Trump’s conflicts of interests

Donald J. Trump is a rich man. Exactly how rich is unknown. Around $10 billion, as he has claimed? Or $4.5 billion, as Forbes counted? Maybe just a few hundred million? Voters likely won’t know unless Trump releases his tax returns, a modern tradition for presidential candidates that Trump says he can’t follow because he’s being audited — even though experts, including the IRS, say an audit has no legal bearing on whether Trump can share his returns with the electorate.The point of releasing his

Oct. 4, 2016

[Dan K. Thomasson] In picking a president, health is a serious concern

If Americans had known how sick Franklin D. Roosevelt had become by 1940, would they have voted to give him an unprecedented third term as president? What about his fourth, which lasted three months and ended with his death?Who knows, but at least voters would have had the information necessary to make a rational choice.Instead, most Americans voting in the 1940 election were unaware that the polio victim had astronomical blood pressure, a condition he could do little to combat outside rest, die

Oct. 3, 2016

[Tyler Cowen] Suburbs will soar on wings of tech　

For a few years it seemed that Americans were moving to the cities, but now the trends are toward the suburbs once again. Long-term trends favor suburbs even more.One reason is the rise of Uber and other ride-sharing services. Uber helps users virtually everywhere, but in cities there are subways and buses and walking might be an option. Uber therefore is swinging the advantage to the suburbs, or to spread out suburb-like cities such as Los Angeles.Self-driving vehicles are also likely to help t

Oct. 3, 2016

Deutsche Bank‘s troubles, Europe’s failures

Less than a decade after the financial crisis, Deutsche Bank is in trouble again, with investors speculating about whether the German government will have to rescue one of the world‘s largest financial institutions. The sad thing is how easily this predicament could have been avoided.This time around, Deutsche Bank isn’t dealing with an unforeseen market meltdown or sovereign-debt crisis. Rather, the proximate cause of distress is the US Justice Department‘s threat to fine the firm $14 billion f

Oct. 3, 2016

[Robert B. Reich] Time for Congress to stop hollering at CEOs

Recently, Congress engaged in a bipartisan barrage of CEO bashing.The Senate Banking Committee assailed Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf for pushing employees to create as many as 2 million bogus bank and credit card accounts without customer consent — making customers pay overdraft and late fees on accounts they never knew they had.Louisiana Republican David Vitter pressed Stumpf on when he knew about the wrongdoing. “In 2011, about 1,000 employees were fired over this,” said Vitter, incredulously,

Oct. 3, 2016

[Antony Davies, James R. Harrigan] Fed’s near-zero rates can’t last forever

The Federal Reserve has held interest rates at near zero for so long that many have forgotten that near-zero rates are not normal. And when we finally do return to normal, there’s going to be a very large bill to pay.To help hold interest rates so low for so long, the Fed has increased bank reserve balances by 20,000 percent over the past decade, flooding financial institutions with enough reserves that borrowing money, literally, costs almost nothing. The Fed’s target interest rate, the federal

Sept. 30, 2016