Opinion

  While Aung San Suu Kyi’s inauguration as Myanmar’s state councilor early last month was largely academic, it certainly wasn’t short on significance. With the globally revered democracy icon vowing to be “above the president” anyway, the international community is now queuing up to engage with the once pariah state. But though Suu Kyi’s ‘brand’ has the power to attract ...

  UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s anti-corruption summit coincided with the release of an International Monetary Fund staff paper that explains why corruption is bad for economies and suggests ways to eradicate it. But neither these recommendations nor those expressed at the forum will do much to fix the developing world’s problems. That would require much more than better anti-graft ...

  In his attempt to score a point against the opposition, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has declared a three-month state of emergency to face what he called “threats from abroad”. Lacking charisma of his predecessor Hugo Chavez, Maduro grapples with the economic crisis triggered by the low oil prices, and emboldened foes who are gearing up for a vote to ...

  Sara Hsu Recently, in the People’s Daily an unidentified “authoritative figure” discussed China’s likely growth trend, referring to it as an “L-shaped trend.” Observers have assumed that the “authoritative figure” is a top official who cannot be named. The official emphasized that in the first quarter of the year, conditions have stabilized and reform has continued, but that reliance ...

  The Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte has just won the country’s presidency with a platform that focuses primarily on severely cracking down on crime. Duterte’s win might be the first electoral outcome in a year where several elections might lead to surprising winners. He is a controversial figure partly because of his unacceptably offensive remarks on women and reputation as a ...

  In 1906, Leonor Loree, an accomplished railroad executive, examined the dilapidated Kansas City Southern Railroad that he had been hired to rehabilitate. Dismayed, he permanently enriched American slang by exclaiming: “This is a helluva way to run a railroad!” Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation’s second-most important court, recently said, with judicial ...

  There is a very unusual thing going on in the municipal market right now: People are losing money by the bucket, and soon they’ll be losing money by the boatload. While regrettable, this is what happens when reality intrudes upon a fantasy. Because Puerto Rico has defaulted, is defaulting and will default on some or all of the $70 ...

Can Americans work longer? Or, are we so broken down by our 60s that extending work life would be cruel? These questions stalk the debate over Social Security and Medicare. Critics of current policy, including me, have long urged that eligibility ages slowly rise to reflect longer life expectancy. Not so fast, counter others. Just because people live longer doesn’t ...

  With suspension of Brazil’s first woman President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday, a curtain will be rolled down on 13 years of leftist rule over Latin America’s biggest nation. Throughout these years, Brazil’s economy improved but nosedived in the last two years. Rousseff was suspended by the Senate for up to 180 days pending an impeachment trial on charges of ...

  Narayana Kocherlakota Have the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policies contributed to wealth inequality? Probably, but not in the way the central bank’s detractors think. Critics of the Fed’s efforts to support economic growth often argue that policies such as low interest rates and asset purchases have disproportionately benefited the rich. After all, they work in part by pushing up the ...