Last Sunday’s sinking of an Iranian oil tanker 180 miles off the coast of Shanghai certainly looks like an environmental disaster. Depending on how many of the ship’s 1 million barrels of condensate were released into the ocean and not burned off, the accident could end up being one of the biggest oil spills in half a century. The irony? Even that wouldn’t represent the biggest disaster to befall the area.　The fact is, thanks to massive overfishing in China’s territorial waters, there isn’t much

Viewpoints Jan. 19, 2018

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel is worried once again that President Donald Trump will blow up the Iran nuclear deal.　It’s not just that the Europeans assert that Iran is complying with the terms of the 2015 accord. It’s also that Gabriel believes exiting the agreement would send the wrong message to North Korea. “It’s absolutely necessary to have the signal that it’s possible by diplomatic approaches to prevent the development of nuclear weapons in a time when other parts of the world ar

Viewpoints Jan. 17, 2018

Italy’s politicians often stand accused of lacking the courage needed to shake up the country’s ailing economy. What if, however, the issue was Italian voters, who don’t want a reformist government? 　This question springs to mind watching the depressing campaign ahead of Italy’s general elections, which will be held on March 4. Italians look increasingly set on going back to the future, supporting the 81-year old media tycoon and convicted felon Silvio Berlusconi, a four-time former Italian prim

Viewpoints Jan. 17, 2018

Nigel Farage, that most notorious of Brexit agitators, hasn’t made any friends by suggesting that the UK should “maybe, just maybe” have a second referendum on EU membership. Fellow nationalists, the Conservative government, the opposition Labour Party -- no one seems to want a replay of the 2016 vote. But even if Farage is just fishing for attention, he’s essentially right. Here’s a sports analogy the Brits might want to consider.In 1999, Arsenal was the second-strongest team in England’s Premi

Viewpoints Jan. 16, 2018

For more than 100 years, the Middle East has been defined by oil exploration, production and its boundaries. Now the region is getting repurposed by its aspiration to grow beyond fossil fuel. The shake-up in Saudi Arabia’s royal family was as much about becoming a 21st-century economy as it was about rooting out corruption.　None of the region’s petrostates has moved further from its oilfield roots than Dubai, which has been diversifying its economy since the 1970s. The result is a thriving gatew

Viewpoints Jan. 16, 2018

Despite growing hostility between Russia and the West, President Vladimir Putin clearly hasn’t succeeded in convincing the Russian business community that it should be more patriotic. The list of new citizens of Malta, published by the island nation’s government, has enough well-known Russian names to drive home an uncomfortable truth for the Kremlin: The Russian elite doesn’t feel attached to Putin’s besieged fortress project.Malta’s so-called Individual Investor Program allows a nonresident fo

Viewpoints Jan. 15, 2018

Mauricio Macri had a pretty good year. Having settled a sulfurous quarrel over past-due debts with cranky hedge funds, the Argentine president went on to dismantle market-warping energy subsidies, rehabilitate the census bureau, slow inflation, and thwart a Peronist revolt to lead his fledgling Cambiemos political coalition to a major victory in the October midterm elections. Then, just before Christmas, he persuaded Congress to roll back corporate taxes and even tweak old age pensions, the gran

Viewpoints Jan. 15, 2018

The UK’s obvious turnabout on the desirability of a no-deal exit from the European Union shows how completely the tables have turned in the Brexit negotiations. With less than a year to seal a trade deal, the EU is nudging the UK toward an understanding that the only benign outcome is agreeing to a long transition period. That could allow a different UK team to emerge with a humbler approach.David Davis, the UK Brexit minister, has written Prime Minister Theresa May a letter complaining that the

Viewpoints Jan. 14, 2018

Things are certainly going the Democrats’ way so far in the 2018 elections. They seem poised to win a majority in the US House and possibly even the Senate, and to win back dozens and dozens of other offices they lost in 2010 and 2014. But there’s still plenty of time for the party to sabotage itself.　The sheer number of people seeking to run creates a two-stage trap for Democrats. If they nominate the wrong candidates, they could lose races they should‘ve won. If they elect the wrong candidates

Viewpoints Jan. 11, 2018

Will 2018 be the year of the household hangover? The latest data on the saving rate, which broke under 3 percent to 2.9 percent in November, the lowest since 2007, suggests that an encore to the ebullient buying over the holidays will not happen in the new year.Without a doubt, households are as buoyant as they’ve been in years. In the most recent consumer confidence report, only 15.2 percent of those surveyed reported jobs were “hard to get,” a 16-year low. The few economists who have forecast

Viewpoints Jan. 9, 2018