If imitation really is the greatest form of flattery, Shinzo Abe should be thrilled the Chinese are copying his “Abenomics” strategy to excite investors. The rest of the world shouldn’t be.China isn’t cribbing the Japanese prime minister’s actual blueprint, but his formula of spin and hype that has convinced the world something that doesn’t yet exist is real. The key to a great ad campaign is attracting customers and keeping them, something Abe has done with a brilliance that could teach the Ede

Today it’s easy to assume that social media platforms are a recent development, a phenomenon unique to the Internet age. But the exchange of media along social networks of friends and acquaintances is in fact much older than Facebook, Twitter or MySpace.Consider the situation in the late Roman republic, in the 1st century BC. At the time there were no printing presses and no paper. Instead, information circulated among the intermarried families of the Roman elite through the exchange of papyrus

Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election in Germany with an impressive share of the vote, but talks to form a coalition remain jammed over whether to establish a minimum wage. This focus is myopic.The next government ― probably a grand coalition between Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party ― will need to concentrate on fundamental issues affecting the next generation that have been neglected under Merkel as she concentrated on balancing the budget.Germany may be th

Thirty, 20 or even 10 years from now, will historians write that the unbridled zeal of the National Security Agency fatally undermined U.S. leadership in the Information Age and the creation of a truly global Internet?The latest sign this could happen comes from the European Parliament, where legislators have advanced privacy legislation that would forbid the transfer of data generated in the European Union to an outside country unless the subject in question and the EU source country first give

The HealthCare.gov website is a disaster ― symbolic to Obamacare opponents, disheartening to supporters, and incredibly frustrating to people who just need to buy insurance. Some computer experts are saying the only way to save the system is to scrap the current bloated code and start over.Looking back, it seems crazy that neither the Barack Obama administration nor the public was prepared for the startup difficulties. There’s no shortage of database experts willing to opine on the complexities

An occupational hazard for foreign journalists is traipsing into “exotic Japan” and getting lost in a forest of stereotypes, fuzzy data and tarted-up headlines.Such is the case with the media’s renewed obsession with reports that the Japanese have given up on sex. This canard emerges every couple of years, but it’s snowballing anew thanks to an Oct. 19 Guardian headline screaming: “Why Have Young People in Japan Stopped Having Sex?” The references to dominatrixes-turned-sex counselors, men who g

The Afghan people’s most dangerous foe is not the Taliban. It’s not Pakistan or al-Qaida. No, it’s their president, Hamid Karzai.U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Kabul earlier this month and spent more than 24 hours with Karzai, trying to work out an agreement that would allow a modest contingent of U.S. troops to remain in the country after 2014, to continue protecting Afghans from their enemies.The two men said they came to agreement on several important issues. But the pact remains

PARIS ― Our standards for heroism really have tanked, and a new Hollywood movie has driven that point home ― at 180 mph.Ron Howard’s breathtaking new movie, “Rush,” is the story of the famous 1976 season of Formula One legends Niki Lauda and James Hunt, during which world champion Lauda had a near-fatal crash at Germany’s Nrburgring track. The film underscores just how easily impressed we’ve become as a society since the Lauda-Hunt era. I walked out of the theater wanting to punt a Bieber.Just 4

A new report has sent a jolt through the world of spies and spy-handlers, with revelations of a major betrayal by a key ally of the United States and the West. That ally is Turkey, a member of NATO, a candidate for membership in the European Union and nation with close ties to the United States and, until a few years ago, a good friend of Israel.The well-connected Washington Post writer David Ignatius reported the shocking news that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave Iran the names