From Big Tech to Big Pharma, the Biden administration is taking an aggressive approach to antitrust law. It is a risky strategy that could backfire, hobbling legitimate oversight for decades to come.
Read moreThe Contrarian Case for Pakistan's Upside
Pakistan is not often in the Western news, but when it is, it is almost always negative. That is certainly the case with the arrest this week of former prime minister and leading opposition figure Imran Khan, which triggered widespread protests.
Read moreThe U.S. Government Keeps Breaking the Economic Golden Rule: Do No Harm
Government officials at every level should adopt a new mantra, a Hippocratic economic oath: do no harm. Newly minted doctors take the same oath to do no harm as one of their foundational medical principles. Economic policy should start with the same presumption.
Read moreThe Extraordinarily Misguided Attack on TikTok
The recent grilling of TikTok’s CEO in front of an almost entirely hostile congressional committee was a reminder that a hardening stance against China is one of the few areas of genuine bipartisanship. That and an antagonistic stance toward Big Tech, so TikTok actually manages to check two boxes.
Read moreWho Is Really to Blame for SVB and the Banking Crisis
The Federal Reserve has raised short-term interest rates at the fastest pace since the early 1980s in an attempt to curb the hottest inflation since the early 1980s. But in its zeal to tame inflation, the Fed has been seemingly indifferent to sudden sharp shifts in the economic winds.
Read moreThe Bright Side of 2022
If the final decades of the 20th century were marked by a burst of techno-capitalist optimism, the first decades of the 21st century have often felt like a step-by-step descent into despair. Everyone, it seems, feels grim about the present and worse about the future.
Read moreDemocrats and Republicans Agree That America Is Always Right
Domestically, Americans are sharply divided, with the balance of power nationally almost exactly split between Democrats and Republicans. When it comes to foreign policy, Americans and their political parties are much more aligned. In theory, that should be a good thing. In reality, it is not.
Read moreThere Is a Painless Way to Fix Inflation
When The Fed sharply increased its target interest rate by three-quarters of a percent, Chairman Jerome Powell remarked, “I wish there were a painless way…There isn’t.” Actually, there is a painless way: stop raising rates.
Read moreThe Other Scandal Revealed at Mar-a-Lago
Regardless of whether the former president is ultimately indicted, the case points to a problem that’s bigger than Trump: The U.S. government has become addicted to shrouding its actions behind a veil of secrecy, especially when it comes to national security.
Read moreRussia or China? The U.S. Has a Choice to Make.
China has “both the intent to reshape the international order” and the power to do so, he said. The United States will seek to rally coalitions of other nations to meet Beijing’s challenge.
Read moreInflation May Already Have Peaked. Overreacting Brings Its Own Risks
Billionaires Have Always Owned the Media. Musk Is No Great Threat
The explosive announcement that Elon Musk is buying Twitter and taking it private has generated a slew of commentary. The most common refrain has been that we are at “peak billionaire” and that Musk’s acquisition reflects a disturbing acceleration of not just inequality but of the ability of the very rich to dictate the rules of democracy itself.
Read moreWhy You Probably Don't Need to Worry About 1970s-Style Stagflation
The Seventies were famous for many things: wide-lapels, disco music, Watergate, the middle-class abandonment of cities for suburbs, and of course, stagflation, that toxic blend of soaring prices and stagnant economic growth. Is history repeating itself?
Read moreHow to Make Sense of the Stock Market's Turbulent Year So Far
Here we go again. From late March 2020 till almost the end of last year, stock markets had been on an extraordinary tear. When the pandemic exploded, market plunged close to 30% in a matter of weeks. What the markets giveth, they taketh away.
Read moreWhy We Should Stop Freaking Out About Inflation
For the first time in decades, we are in the midst of a bona-fide inflation scare. Recent numbers came in at 6.2%, the highest since 1990. Much of the world is beset by high demand for goods that have created massive supply-chain bottlenecks, with not enough ships and capacity at ports leading to long delays and higher prices for almost everything.
Read moreIt's All About Spending, Stupid. The Dems Blew Their Moment by Obsessing Over Taxes
After months of false starts and internal divisions, it appears that President Biden and Congressional Democrats are on the verge of agreeing to a spending package to address climate change, childcare, housing, paid family leave and to lower drug costs.
Read moreJust How High Could the Dow Go?
U.S. stocks had been on fire. The technology and internet boom spurred a wave of day traders and investment mania that now seems quaint. But at the time, the Dow Jones industrial average index was hovering around 10,000. And even in those heady days, forecasting a near-quadrupling of the index appeared naïve at best and ridiculous at worst.
Read moreBest Buy Bucks the Trend That’s Crushing Other Retailers
Far from facing extinction, Best Buy is poised for another year of solid growth. Its relative success stands in sharp contrast to the fate of retail in general, and its formula should serve as a reminder that retailing may be changing, but not everything will be ecommerce.
Read moreDon’t Blame Just Trump for U.S.-China Hostility
The Trump administration, with its fixation on trade balances and its view that the Chinese have ripped off U.S. consumers for decades, clearly initiated the current trade war. But the truth is that American animosity to the rise of China can’t all be attributed to President Donald Trump.
Read moreStumbles at Uber and WeWork Don't Mean the End of Tech
After a long drought, the go-go days of hot technology IPOs appear to be back. The new age began last week with the long-awaited public offering of shares in ride-hailing service Lyft, which raised more than $2 billion for the company with a valuation climbing to over $26 billion before falling back to earth on Monday. To put that in perspective, Lyft’s valuation after the IPO rivaled those of Snapchat, Dropbox, and Spotify; it’s larger than all of this year’s IPOs combined.
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