Europe could not have asked for a better end to 2017. This week, data from the Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index showed that economic activity was the strongest in nearly seven years. The unemployment claims rate in Germany is at its lowest level since the early 1990s. Even Greece’s factories are enjoying the best run in nearly a decade.Indeed, the euro-zone economy must surely rank near to the top of any list of positive surprises of 2017. The European Commission believes the currency union exp

Viewpoints Jan. 8, 2018

Liberals are at a loss.　 The US president, who turned out to be more vile and duplicitous than they even had imagined, may or may not be indicted within a year’s time. Meantime, the US Congress is run by conservatives who, spurred by the greed of their donors and the fears of their base, are growing ever more comfortable telling blatant lies, preparing cover-ups and counter-narratives and overhauling the nation’s tax code in the manner of a Vegas caper -- hidden from view with the cash to be div

Viewpoints Jan. 7, 2018

Sen. Bernie Sanders says it’s worth following the example of “our brothers and sisters in Iceland” who last year passed the world’s most demanding law on equal pay for men and women. But the legislation, which took effect on Jan. 1, could end up hurting women without some added measures. Even ultra-egalitarian Iceland isn’t ready to take them. No other country has gone as far as Iceland in demanding equal pay for equal work. The 2017 law doesn’t just expose a company that violates the principle

Viewpoints Jan. 7, 2018

If President Donald Trump would actually sue Steve Bannon for violating a nondisclosure agreement made with his campaign, it would be great for the freedom of speech.That may sound strange, because Trump’s threatened lawsuit is precisely aimed to silence Bannon and other potential leakers who worked on the campaign. Bannon has been extensively quoted in excerpts published this week from the journalist Michael Wolff’s new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”But Trump’s suit would

Viewpoints Jan. 7, 2018

The revolt against sexual predation in the workplace is in full cry in the United States. But what about in Latin America, where machismo was branded and the border between seduction and assault has been elastic and riddled with legal indulgences?The outrage may be more selective and change agonizingly slow, but even in the most patriarchal societies of the Americas, the pushback is gathering force. From Mexico City to Buenos Aires, a new generation is speaking up, driving policy changes and cal

Viewpoints Jan. 3, 2018

The trade war didn’t happen. Prepare for a few skirmishes.It was high on many observers’ lists of things that could go badly wrong in 2017. Buying and selling of goods and services across borders not only increased last year, but also grew more than anticipated. This year may test whether that’s a durable trend or just an accident that flew in the face of politics. Part of the thanks goes to a more vigorous global economic expansion. The resilience of the international system should also get its

Viewpoints Jan. 2, 2018

Monopoly power is a hot topic of economic debate. Economists are starting to ask whether increasing industrial concentration is choking off productivity growth, reducing capital investment, throttling or deterring would-be entrepreneurs, raising consumer prices, and reducing the share of national income flowing to workers.This is a good and important effort. But it’s also possible that with all the attention being paid to concentration at the industry level, there hasn’t been enough focus on the

Viewpoints Jan. 2, 2018

Americans have never been more addicted to devices. Thanks to the mobile revolution initiated by the iPhone, the US alone is home to 238 million mobile phones and 140 million tablets that are rarely shut down. And their numbers are growing, thanks to a perpetual upgrade cycle and demand for new features. For environmentalists, it’s a looming electronic nightmare in which America’s gadget obsession consumes increasingly higher volumes of the world’s limited resources.Thankfully, the data shows th

Viewpoints Jan. 1, 2018

John Austin is a man with a mission: to revive the Rust Belt. The former president of the Michigan State Board of Education, he is also a researcher at the Brookings Institution and has been the director of multiple nonprofit organizations and government commissions. In 2006 he produced a plan for Rust Belt regional revitalization. Now, in a series of blog posts for Brookings, Austin has been evaluating which local development strategies have worked, and which have failed.　Austin believes that t

Viewpoints Dec. 28, 2017

Given the notoriously glacial pace of Latin American justice, Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s fall from grace and, almost, from power was dizzying. Barely a week after being accused of lying about taking money from a tainted contractor, he was hauled before congress and narrowly escaped impeachment late Thursday -- an inquisitorial zeal that might make the old school generalissimos look slack.　Kuczynski’s survival is good news for Peru, which thanks to its sensible policies and market

Viewpoints Dec. 27, 2017