Opinion

A candid memoir by former US Defense Secretary Ash Carter provides a rare opportunity to better understand President Barack Obama’s Syria strategy before it recedes into the historical distance. His many valuable insights raise one big question, however: Why did the US even get involved? The apparent goal of Carter’s detailed reminiscences is to establish his role in the defeat ...

Tim Ryan’s challenge to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi last year had no chance of seriously threatening her position because the bulk of the Democratic caucus is more liberal than him. But a new one from California’s Linda Sanchez taking aim at Pelosi, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and Assistant Minority Leader James Clayburn could prove quite serious indeed. Sanchez is ...

Economists would almost universally agree that fiscal discipline is a good thing. No government should aspire to live beyond its means. If it does, the consequences can be severe: higher inflation, higher interest rates, low private investment and lower growth. India’s current government has justly been praised for its fiscal restraint. It’s reduced the overall fiscal deficit and reoriented spending ...

The American consumer is the great engine of growth for the $19 trillion US economy, representing nearly 70 percent of spending. If the consumer is confident and happy, chances are that the economy is satisfactory or robust. On the other hand, if the consumer is confused and worried, the economy may be weak and vulnerable to setbacks. Which is it ...

“W hen you got a hundred voices singin’, who can hear a lousy whistle blow?” —Newsies. Instead of managing the Catalonia crisis well, Spain’s central government has inadvertently provided the world with an illustration of what not to do. The heavy-handed response to the region’s desire for greater self-determination has empowered, and not weakened, separatists and has contributed to regrettable ...

Besides default, perhaps the biggest risk to holders of euro-denominated bonds is currency convertibility. It isn’t talked about all that often, but it hangs over the market like a black cloud. The fear is that some geopolitical event causes a member of the euro zone to decide to exit the union and investors holding sovereign bonds denominated in euros are ...

Lost in the debate over how best to insure Americans against the high cost of health care has been the question of how to bring that cost down. That’s a shame, because keeping the cost of medical treatment from rising so fast is just as important as providing Americans access to it. Promising efforts to get a grip on medical ...

On October 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 65. As of this year, this is the maximum retirement age for Russian civil servants, which can only be raised in special cases. Though Putin, as an elected official, is not subject to this law and has indicated that it’s too early for him to retire, he reaches this milestone in a ...

For 30 years China has recycled more cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and old computers than any other nation. By doing so, it’s saved millions of tons of resources and indirectly funded thousands of recycling programs and companies globally. But now it wants to stop. In July, China notified the World Trade Organization that it will soon prohibit the import of ...

Prime Minister Theresa May closed the Tory Party conference with a rambling speech on Conservative values, Brexit, economic and social policy. Many wondered whether the embattled leader had done enough to heal, or at least paper over, the much-noted divisions within her own party and cabinet for now. But the more important question is whether she’s doing enough to win ...