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 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 moreTrump’s China Tariffs Failed. Why Isn’t Biden Dropping Them?
In an interview this week, President-elect Joe Biden said that he’s not planning to reverse tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the United States as quickly as he plans to reverse other Trump-era policies…
Read moreThe Fed Finally Realizes That Inflation Isn’t Coming
The Coronavirus Will End Conservative Dogma About Big Government Forever
The sheer urgency of the new coronavirus and its damage are overpowering free markets, shuttering businesses and triggering responses that only four weeks ago looked impractical, naive and socialist. Now, they are essential.
Read moreStop Saying America’s Problems are Like Ancient Rome’s Decline
Prosecuting the Chinese Huawei Executive is an Idiotic Way to Hold China in Check
The U.S.-China relationship seemed to improve last week at the G-20 summit in Argentina. Then, an ominous development: American authorities asked Canada to arrest the chief financial officer of one of China’s largest technologies companies.
Read moreTariffs Would Work — if Trump Could Build an Economy Like China’s
In recent weeks, President Trump has threatened tariffs on $500 billion of Chinese imports, on $200 billion of auto imports from various countries and on any nation he perceives as ripping off the United States.
Read morePeace with North Korea Seems Unlikely. But Peace Often Does Ahead of Time.
Why Trump’s Fist-Shaking Tariff Talk Won’t Translate to Action
After a year of hemming and fulminating, President Trump finally unleashed the trade war that he had been promising since his campaign — and indeed for years before that. The stock market tanked on the news, and the commentariat exploded, with the bulk of the response negative.
Read moreThis Week’s Stock Market Drop was Machine-Made. The Freakout That Followed Was Man-Made.
“Dow plunges 391 points as fear grips markets.” A headline from two days ago? Try two years ago. Jan. 15, 2016, to be precise. The last time stocks exhibited the sharp sell-off — followed by an equally sharp run-up — that characterized the past few days. Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down about 1,600 points, the largest intraday point-drop ever,
Read moreWe Already Have a Wall. If It’ll Save DACA, Just Let Trump Buy a New One.
A Trade War with China Would Backfire on Trump — and America
As the Trump administration prepares to take a tougher trade stance on what it sees as unfair Chinese trade policies, China has signaled that it won’t accept such measures lying down, saying it will “resolutely safeguard” its economic interests.
Read moreThe Fed’s Playbook Says Raise Rates. What if That’s an Obsolete Game Plan?
As congressional Republicans prepare to pass their tax bill , the Federal Reserve is about to say goodbye to Janet Yellen as chair. She’s had a good run: The United States and the world recovered from the financial crisis; steady, if unspectacular, growth resumed. Yet now the Fed is in an unusual spot as Jerome Powell takes over.
Read moreChina’s Rise Didn’t Have to Mean America’s Fall. Then Came Trump.
It’s no secret that the People’s Republic of China is nearing completion of a decades-long project to reassert itself as a global force. Whether it’s via the “One Belt, One Road” initiative to spend billions on infrastructure spanning Africa and Asia, its formation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Read moreFinally, a Force that can Stop Nationalism in the White House: Wealthy Elites
The recent dustup over whether the Trump administration should withdraw the United States from the NAFTA accord cast the ongoing power struggle inside the White House in sharp relief. The conflict, often characterized as a duel between Steve Bannon and his ilk (nationalists) and Jared Kushner and his crew (“globalists,” according to Bannon), isn’t necessarily the choice we would want: who would pit wealthy elites against “burn baby burn”
Read moreIt’s Not Just Trump. People Freaked out Over Nixon and Reagan, Too.
Donald Trump’s election has been greeted by a considerable portion of the country with panic. Large swaths of commentators have described his victory as a potential disaster for the nation — placing a “xenophobic racist” and “clown” in the Oval Office. One Hillary Clinton supporter outside her hotel in New York the morning after the election said, “I’m feeling physical pain. I’m shocked. I’m sad.”
Read moreThe GOP is Breaking. It’s not Trump’s Fault.
We now have something like consensus: The rise of Donald Trump portends the end of the Republican Party as we know it. As longtime GOP operative and commentator Steve Schmidt said last week, “The Republican Party has an outstanding chance of fracturing.” Trump’s opponents, inside and outside the party, are united in the belief that he has almost single-handedly undone an institution founded on the eve of the Civil War that has lasted for more than 150 years and has immeasurably shaped the United States.
Read more‘Authoritative’ Pessimism in China
China’s economy, long a source of global dynamism, is changing into a source of instability. Growth, still rapid by international standards, is gradually decelerating, as a nearly three-decade-old investment- and export-led strategy delivers diminishing returns. Yet the Communist Party, beholden to — or composed of — interest groups that benefit from the status quo, has not shifted decisively toward more reliance on consumer demand and investment by private firms. Instead, Beijing continues to goose short-term growth with loans to bloated state-owned banks and industries.
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