In England, soccer loyalty is to club rather than country. For more than 50 years, I have watched and supported Aston Villa, one of the most famous, if not the most successful, clubs in the world. During that half century, there have been many ups and downs. And the same could be said of the British economy.I first visited Villa Park on Oct. 8, 1960. Aston Villa beat Newcastle United, 2-0. The great stadium stretched out in front of us as the autumn mist fell over the Holte End. The club has a p

Once, we came of age under the shadow of something called a Permanent Record. Nobody ever actually saw one, but as youngsters we understood we had to keep our own clean, since stains could do lasting damage.Plainly, the idea of an authoritative, ineradicable ledger on individual behavior is a powerful one. Widespread too. You see it in everything from the divine Book of Life to the gift list kept by Santa, who knows if you’ve been bad or good.That permanent record meant somebody was paying atten

Few presidential candidates enjoyed better press than Barack Obama in 2008. He reciprocated by promising unprecedented “openness in government” and a new era of transparency.He has fallen far short of the promise. This administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers for leaks and gone after more journalists than any of its predecessors.In a report last year, Leonard Downie, the former executive editor of the Washington Post, said the administration’s efforts to crack down on information seepi

The rise of the Crimea conflict and territorial disputes in the South China Sea suddenly raise the specter that warfare may no longer be a thing of the past. After all, politics is cultural mixing without violence and war is cultural mixing with violence. The reason why we need to think seriously is that war will disrupt any plans for the future of Asia and our investment strategies.We have gone through the longest peace time enjoyed in recent history (1945-today), longer than the four decades o

One of the things I enjoyed most in my professional career was indulging a couple of my favorite interests simultaneously ― football (which some of you call “soccer,” for some reason) and economics.On five occasions, I presided over the publication of special booklets about the World Cup and economics, starting in 1994 in my days at Swiss Bank Corp., and then for each tournament from 1998 onward at Goldman Sachs, all the way to the 2010 tournament World Cup in South Africa. Not only did I have a

PARIS ― U.S. President Barack Obama recently agreed to the release of five Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for an alleged U.S. military deserter. It’s great trade for the soldier, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who will be reunited with his loved ones back in America. Nonetheless, it’s a bad precedent for America.Obama said he expressed his personal gratitude to Qatar for having negotiated the Bergdahl swap. What could possibly be in this deal for Qatar?In June 2013, Qatar hosted tal

Practitioners of purity push young people who embrace diversity and freedom to opt out of political structures.“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent.” ― Pope FrancisI entered the Catholic seminary at 13. I have worked for Cesar Chavez’s farm worker movement and labor unions since I was 19. And I have run political campaigns for Democratic politicians and causes for 40 years.Watching these institutions, my personal “trinity,” struggle to remain relevant has been h

Tony Abbott, Australia’s climate-change skeptic in chief, may be in for some heated exchanges at the White House next week.Abbott visits Washington just as President Barack Obama is moving in the opposite direction. A year ago, Australia was in the vanguard of global efforts to set a price on carbon emissions, build a cap-and-trade exchange and tax miners. Abbott has spent his nine months as the nation’s prime minister scrapping those trailblazing policies. Now he’s letting Obama grab the mantle

Ukraine has hit on a good way to keep Russia’s annexation of Crimea on the world agenda: Sue for compensation.Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to play a mind trick on Western leaders: Get them so worked up about the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine that they forget about Crimea. On Monday, acting Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko offered a reminder in the form of a 17-volume calculation that values the territory, including such items as the 300 kilograms of gold kept at the Cr