Opinion

His differences with US President Donald Trump may have helped win Moon Jae-in the presidency of South Korea. Now he and Trump need to focus on what unites them. During the campaign, Moon took issue with the U.S. administration’s approach to North Korea. In the past, he’s called for engaging economically with the North and restarting joint development projects, rather …

US President Donald Trump has approved to directly arm the Syrian Kurdish forces in the fight to wrest back Raqqa, the self-declared capital of IS group. But Turkey, a US ally and NATO member, has criticized US plan as unacceptable and a threat to Turkey. Ankara says Syrian Kurds are linked to PKK militants in the country and supporting them …

As they’ve guided China’s remarkable economic ascent over the last four decades, the country’s leaders have largely been content to focus on raising incomes and building factories. They’ve steered clear of messy international entanglements that could undermine economic progress, and with it the public support that keeps them in power. Over the past decade, of course, a richer, more confident …

Most of us remember the time before smartphones were in the pockets and purses of billions of people. Before those gadgets became the primary computer for millions of people. Before the smartphone boom made fortunes for some companies — Apple and Facebook, for example — and doomed others. That all happened in less than a decade. That is stunningly quick. …

Per-capita electricity use peaked in the US in 2007. With the exception of a post-recession rebound in 2010, it has declined every year since. I already wrote a column about this epochal shift last month, but the chart that went with it is so remarkable that I’m going to recycle it here. What caused the decline? I offered several possible …

  Though roller-coaster elections have recently become the norm in established democracies (witness France’s whirlwind campaign that ended recently), Germany appears determined to be an exception. As her party clinched yet another key regional election, Chancellor Angela Merkel is close to establishing her dominance in the September general election well ahead of time. Former European Parliament President Martin Schulz created …

  Although the Federal Reserve refrained from raising interest rates last week, it emphasized that policy makers still believe a gradual adjustment is warranted. On the surface, that’s a market-friendly policy because it means a slower pace of dollar appreciation, which would benefit emerging markets and commodities. Then there’s China, where a gradual adjustment higher in US rates could mean …

  Europe’s leaders are thrilled that Emmanuel Macron beat Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election — and they should be. Yet they ought to keep their celebrations brief, because they need to start thinking now about how to help Macron make a success of his presidency. Le Pen’s angry nationalism gave voice to widespread dissatisfaction with the European …

  Democratic Party’s candidate Moon Jae-in has been declared the winner in South Korean presidential election. With 100% of the votes counted, Moon won with 41.08%, according to the country’s National Election Commission. As many as 13,423,800 voters chose Moon Jae-in as their preference for president. Moon, a liberal, was sworn in as South Korea’s new president on Wednesday and …

  It’s always worth re-evaluating one’s views, and my latest revision is that the euro currency is better and less vulnerable than I had thought. I still believe its creation and later expansion were mistakes, but I now see them as much smaller mistakes than before. Many of the biggest costs lie in the past, so the euro might be …