The shooting of Harambe the gorilla to save a 3-year-old boy who’d fallen into an enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo whipped the Internet into a frenzy. The boy’s mother has been branded a terrible parent and authorities are investigating the incident and the zoo.We’re not here to referee Web flaming or to second-guess zookeepers’ actions. Let’s turn the scope around and examine a deeper — and healthier — theme: The intense public outcry over this killing reflects a broad shift in public attitudes

June 5, 2016

There is an important, but quiet debate in the economics profession about what leads to big recessions: wealth or debt.Almost everyone agrees, at this point, that the Great Recession of 2007-09 was caused by the financial system. But that leaves the question of what, exactly, happens in a financial system that leads an economy to crash. Formal economic models of financial shocks are not very realistic. They usually assume the harm comes from disruption to the banking system, which acts like a su

June 5, 2016

China is arguably the valedictorian of Asia’s MBA program. When Deng Xiaoping ditched the radical economics of Mao and steered China into the global economy beginning in the early 1980s, he borrowed liberally from programs and policies that had earlier ignited rapid growth in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The student quickly outshone the teachers, riding an export-led, investment-heavy strategy to years of double-digit growth.　Now, however, China’s President Xi Jinping app

June 3, 2016

The Thai junta has tilted too much toward China and Russia over conflicts with the U.S. and Western democracies.The National Council for Peace and Order has misjudged changing geopolitical realities in its tilting of Thai foreign policy toward China and Russia in a bid to counter political pressure from the United States and other Western countries over rights violations and democracy suppression.U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Vietnam, along with his Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip

June 2, 2016

MANILA -- Have the authority and charisma of Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte weakened the critical capacities of his supporters? 　After admitting in a recent press conference that he is no longer a Catholic, Rodrigo Duterte remarked that he had a new religion: “Iglesia ni Duterte (Church of Duterte).”　He invited people to join it, presumably after leaving the Catholic Church, which he has called “the most hypocritical institution.”　Many will dismiss the invitation as just another joke

June 2, 2016

The Afghanistan debate will drive most decisions.“Interesting” times are upon Pakistan-U.S. ties again. A U.S. drone strike killed Mullah Mansour in Balochistan; the proposed U.S. F-16 sale to Pakistan formally expired. The Obama administration failed to convince lawmakers on Capitol Hill to allow the use of U.S. public funds to complete the transaction and Pakistan refused to pay for them in toto; and the U.S. Congress is moving to put further Haqqani network-related conditions on assistance to

June 2, 2016

The differences between China and the U.S. over the South China Sea issue have become a matter of concern and even anxiety. But some of the perceptions in the U.S. and elsewhere about China’s policy and intentions in the area are misplaced. A pressing task is to understand the facts and China’s intentions correctly so as to avoid real danger and consequences as a result of misinterpretation and miscalculation.　The issues in the South China Sea revolve around territorial and maritime jurisdiction

June 2, 2016

The U.S. Federal Reserve is increasingly at risk of losing credibility — and for good reason. As Narayana Kocherlakota, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, recently argued, Fed officials seem to be balancing their stated aim of keeping inflation near 2 percent over the long term with a host of other, inexplicit, considerations.In public statements, officials have given some hints as to what these other considerations may be. They seem to include the risk of distortion in

June 1, 2016

If voters in the United Kingdom decide in the country’s referendum on June 23 to leave the European Union, it will not be for economic reasons. They may choose “Brexit” because they want full sovereignty, because they hate Brussels, or because they want migrants to return home, but not because they expect great economic benefits.The pro-Brexit camp initially appeared to be holding two strong economic cards. The first was U.K. citizens’ overwhelming rejection of their country’s net fiscal transfe

June 1, 2016

Japan would like to stabilize its rapidly aging population, and there are really only two ways to do that.It can let in tons of immigrants, or it can find some way to raise fertility. Otherwise, it had better resign itself to decades of sluggish economic growth, as hard-working young people are required to carry a larger and larger pyramid of retired old people on their backs. Its social security system will go bankrupt, the health care system will struggle, and interest rates might stay at zero

June 1, 2016

Whether through signals from the Group of Seven meeting this week or in the outcome of the latest round of European negotiations on Greece, officials of advanced countries are increasingly acknowledging that the problems facing their economies require a new response to take over from the overlong use of narrow short-term tools.　This recognition has been too long in coming and, judging from the regrettable lack of credible and detailed action plans, still needs time to be translated into progress

May 31, 2016

Democrats pride themselves on their commitment to science. Citing climate change, they contend that they are the party of truth, while Republicans are “denialists.” But with respect to genetically modified organisms, many Democrats seem indifferent to science, and to be practicing a denialism of their own -- perhaps more so than Republicans. What’s going on here?The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine just issued a book-length report, strongly reaffirming what American and

May 31, 2016

One cause for Syria’s torments is that regional powers have used proxy forces to advance their position in the “great game” of influence, without regard for the effects on the Syrian people.An example is the standoff between two Syrian Kurdish militia groups. One, known as the YPG, appears to be tacitly backed by an odd coalition that includes the United States, and, less visibly, Russia and Iran. The other, much smaller group known as the Peshmerga of Rojava, or “Roj Pesh” is supported by Iraqi

May 31, 2016