Turkey Could Be the Middle East’s Powder Keg
Maybe it had to come to this, given that Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s bullheaded, probably corrupt prime minister, heads an Islamist government in a nation far down the road to secularism. Erdoğan has lately limited the sale of alcohol and put…
Post-Austerity Europe Gropes for a Game Plan
In Spain, King Juan Carlos proposes to give up his 136–foot yacht (although there is bickering over who should get it). In France, President Francois Hollande just raised $390,000 by selling 1,200 bottles of wine from the Élysée Palace cellars…
Will the US Buy Obama’s Plan to end the War Machine?
It’s easy enough to say that President Barack Obama has just announced his intention to end the “war on terror.” This thought is welcome, but it is simply not enough.Obama’s speech at the National Defense University last week has implications…
Has Britain Gone to Pieces Over Exiting the EU?
David Cameron, Britain’s Conservative prime minister, has been bullied on the question of European Union membership. Hard-right Tories (and there are a lot of them) and aonce-marginal independence party now contrive to bring Britain to the brink of exiting the…
Obama’s Red Line in Syria Was Drawn in Pencil
Suddenly, the Syria crisis has grown more complicated for the US—and notably for the Obama administration. After many months of staying scrupulously clear of a conflict that has now claimed 80,000 Syrian lives, it looks as though the White House…
As Europe Turns Left, a Call to “Show Me the Money”
We will die of fiscal consolidation alone,” Enrico Letta, Italy’s new prime minister, said in his maiden speech to parliament a few days ago. “Growth policies cannot wait any longer.” The anti-austerity argument in Europe has quickly achieved respectability. Letta…
Europe’s New Path: Austerity with a Human Face
It did not take long for those flying the flag of fiscal austerity in Europe to turn tail. A week ago in this space I asserted that it was the beginning of the end for the “austerians.” I was too…
European Austerity Does a 180 as Lagarde Weighs In
It will not be long before we look back on this year’s meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which conclude Monday, and see a turning point in the global economic crisis. Europeans, who have suffered the…
The 3-Speed Global Economy Puts US in 2nd Gear
When the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank gather for theirspring meetings in Washington this week, there will be no pressing euro crisis to address, and that is more than one could say a year ago. But we could be…
Japan’s Huge Stimulus Plan: A Bold Roll of the Dice
Young Japanese of 23 has never known anything but a wheezy, punked-out, slump-shouldered Japan—a country that has been in and out of recession and deflation since its famous bubble burst in 1990. Now this is supposed to change—big time. Analysts…
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