3 Major Lessons From the China Crisis That Wasn’t
Now that the stock market has ended its foolish careening in response to China’s modest, sensible adjustment in its exchange-rate mechanism, where are we? To borrow from Donald Rumsfeld’s famous observation about defense planning, there’s what we know, what we…
Journal Entry #9
NEW PRESTON, CONN.—I wrote about markets this week—the appalling crack-up in global exchanges, wholly irrational—and I wrote about journalism. I’m invested in both. What pennies I have are in some kind of mutual fund, but never mind that. I have…
The government’s authoritarian war on journalism: How a flaccid press enabled this Orwellian disgrace
Officials launch an all-out assault on free press — with nary an objection from the Fourth Estate’s guardians. Many readers will know, or know of, the Committee to Protect Journalists. It has been around since the early 1980s and does…
Why China’s Slowdown Will Lead to Sustainable Growth
In less than a week China’s modest, by-the-book devaluation of its currency appears to have escalated into a full-scale political crisis, complete with reports of a Mao-style purge of top leaders and tanks in Tiananmen Square. Suddenly, the world’s highest-flying…
Why a Drop in the Overvalued Yuan Won’t Start a Currency War
A week of mayhem in the financial markets, grandstanding lawmakers on Capitol Hill accusing China of “rigging the rules again”—all because the overvalued yuan depreciated toward a market rate in three dramatic trading sessions. Could we see some evidence of…
Journal Entry #8
NORFOLK, Conn.—I suppose this past week or so is a harbinger of the political season to come. Anyone who reads the columns knows I have little respect for the political process in this country. It is an offense to be…
Donald Trump’s biggest crime is his honesty: How he exposes the sickening rot at the core of the GOP
Republicans have spent decades dressing up fear as courage, pretending at seriousness while advancing hysteria. Many of us cast last week’s Republican debate in Cleveland as entertainment—I have heard the thought repeated many times—but this seems to me a cheap…
Journal Entry #7
S.FREEPORT, MAINE—The biggest even in foreign affairs of the past week or so, trumping (as it were) even Schumer’s capitulation to the Israeli lobby on the Iran accord, is the Republican debate sponsored by Fox News in Cleveland last week….
How GOP Candidates Would Steer U.S. Foreign Policy
With the start of a long season of debates and campaigning among presidential hopefuls, it’s time to start scrutinizing foreign policy positions more closely along party lines. How will a Republican president steer the nation in a complex global world?…
The U.S.-Russia “phony war”: How Washington warmongers could bring us from stalemate to catastrophe
One of two outcomes is likely: Another long Cold War, or a great power conflict. The Ukraine crisis and the attendant confrontation with Russia assume a “phony war” feel these days. As in the perversely calm months between the German…
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