Is North Korea Done With Its March Madness?
Another wacky, worrisome week passes on the Korean peninsula. Kim Jong–un, North Korea’s intensely unpredictable leader, has threatened to attack the “U.S. mainland” with nuclear-tipped missiles. He has declared a state of “all-out war” with South Korea. On Saturday, Pyongyang…
The Cold War Heats Up Between the U.S. and N. Korea
When Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced last Friday he would deploy14 new missile interceptors on the West Coast to thwart a potential nuclear attack from North Korea, the U.S. was squarely placed back in the Cold War. Hagel was responding…
How a Resurgent Japan Puts Washington on the Spot
“Japan is back.” That was the message Shinzo Abe, the new Japanese prime minister, delivered to President Barack Obama at the White House a few days ago. Obama, in turn, made nice, praising the US–Japan alliance as “the central foundation…
How a Fake Currency War Panicked Global Economies
When Shinzo Abe was elected Japan’s prime minister in December, he immediate announced a $118 billion economic stimulus plan — despite a national debt equal to 200 percent of GDP, the world’s highest ratio. Then he went to the Bank…
China’s Provocative Blunder in the Pacific
China is now making East Asia as unsafe as it possibly can. Tokyo and Beijing are not that far from blows over a few forsaken rocks in the East China Sea. Is Beijing behaving badly because it wants to flex…
U.S. and China: Co-dependent Trade Rivals
Chinese exporters had a whacking great December, posting a year-to-year gain of 14.1 percent and giving China its first annual trade surplus in four years. The U.S. trade deficit grew by 15.8 percent in November, led primarily by imports of…
The Global Fiscal and Political “Cliffs” of 2013
The U.S. “fiscal cliff” is one of many fiscal and political precipices to be faced globally in the New Year. Here’s a snapshot of how far the world will have to climb in 2013. SYRIA To begin with the hottest…
Apple’s Big Manufacturing Boom to the US—200 Jobs
At the end of last week, CEO Timothy Cook announced that the company intends to invest $100 million next year to relaunch part of its manufacturing operations in the US. Apple and Foxconn, the contractor responsible for manufacturing iPhones, iPads…
Reform on the Back Burner with New Chinese Regime
China has just decided to hold onto an economic, political, and social model that has a proven record of producing high economic growth – a model that never fails to tip over. I have witnessed the collapse of this kind…
3 Foreign Hotspots that Will Test Obama’s Mettle
The “four more years” now stretching out in front of our forty-fourth president will be dense with challenges overseas, and meeting them will be essential if America is to regain a competitiveness already slipping. It would be hard to list…
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