North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un appears to have blinked and President Trump can claim a foreign policy victory and justification for his strategy. Reminiscent of President Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” approach to deterring adversaries, President Trump stood up to the blustering despot and forced him to back down from his threat to launch missiles […]
Op-Eds
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The curse of middle-aged capitalism
WASHINGTON — A persisting puzzle about the U.S. economy is how it can seem both strong and weak. On the one hand, it remains a citadel of innovation, producing new companies like Uber. On the other, the economy is expanding at a snail’s pace of 2 percent annually since 2010. How could both be true? […]
advertisement
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The gang that couldn't threaten straight
It was inevitable. Eventually, President Donald Trump would treat a foreign adversary as harshly as Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was on the receiving end of the alliteration heard around the world, when Trump promised “fire and fury” if Pyongyang continued to threaten the United States. An American president […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Sanctuary cities vs. hideouts
In biblical times, a sanctuary city was a place where someone who had committed unintentional manslaughter could find refuge from “the avenger of blood.” If the offender left the sanctuary city, he could be set upon by a relative of the dead person and killed. No sanctuary was available to anyone who committed murder with […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Trump has been making threats his whole life
How did we get here? Why does it appear that we’re on the brink of a war in Asia, one that could involve nuclear weapons? North Korea has had nuclear-weapons capacity for at least 10 years. Have its recent advances been so dramatic and significant to force the United States to wage a preventive war? […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Trump's attack on science isn't going well
The first 200 days of the Trump administration have been marked by direct and consistent confrontations with the scientific community, and no area of science has been targeted more explicitly than climate science. The administration has proposed drastic cuts in the budget to federal climate change programs; removed climate-related information from government websites; and refused […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Free markets really don't work for everything
My Bloomberg View colleague Tyler Cowen has a running series of blog posts bearing the title “Markets in Everything.” Plenty of other economists and writers have picked up the phrase, and with good reason — it’s evocative of a powerful idea that defined much of Western political economy in the later part of the 20th century. […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Subtlety at this time would be the greater sin
A few words on trash-talking the president. Said words are occasioned by emails from a large number of readers who have noted an increased propensity toward that practice in this space. Many found that rather ironic in light of an admonition that appears in the auto response received by any person who sends me an […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Did Ike threaten to nuke North Korea?
Do nuclear threats work? President Donald Trump seems to think so. His recent warning that the United States would rain down “fire and fury” upon North Korea may have been improvised, as some media reports suggest, but it may also be part of a strategy to intimidate the North Koreans and get them to restrain […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
A millennial's apology for 'killing everything'
Before we move any closer to the end of the planet, I wish to get this off my chest: I am a millennial, and I am sorry for killing everything. Yes, it was me, and I did it to get vengeance on the boomers. They did not want me to have nice things. They insisted […]