NEW HAVEN ― Recent indications of a weakening global economy have led many people to wonder how pervasive poor economic performance will be in the coming years. Are we facing a long global slump, or possibly even a depression?A fundamental problem in forecasting nowadays is that the ultimate causes of the slowdown are really psychological and sociological, and relate to fluctuating confidence and changing “animal spirits,” about which George Akerlof and I have written. We argue that such shifts

Recently three separate bilateral disputes ― between South Korea and China, South Korea and Japan, and Japan and China ― have exposed another aspect of the security environment in Northeast Asia. These recent events have compelled Korea to review its traditional four-power strategy.More specifically, what do “the strategic cooperative partnership” between South Korea and China and “the more mature partnership” between South Korea and Japan mean in real terms? The same question can be raised abou

Scenes of angry mobs in the Middle East and China fill the newspapers, internet and television these days. The raw emotion and irrationality that is driven by nationalism and religious fervor oozes out of the pictures. Ochlocracy, or rule by mob, is a dangerous and scary phenomenon. And yet that is exactly what calls for the resumption of the death penalty, or the institution of forced physical castration, in South Korea. Detailed descriptions of the horrors of crime merely add fuel to the fire

Is Google making us stupid? I am toying with the sarcastic title of James Bowman’s essay, “Is Stupid Making Us Google?” The celebrated essay begins with the following: “Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore.” Then the essay continues: “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.

AHMEDABAD, INDIA ― No country dominates any industry as much as the United States dominates higher education. According to Shanghai Jiao-Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, for example, 17 of the world’s 20 best universities are American, with Harvard topping the list by a substantial margin.The traditional explanation for this phenomenon ― America’s wealth, large population, generous research funding, widespread private philanthropy, and ability to attract scholars from ar

When it comes to apologies, some people are like scent hounds: They can sniff them out anywhere. This is especially true when it comes to the supposed regrets and self-hatred of President Obama. Though he began his term with a series of speeches in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East in which, according to several fact-checking sources, the words “apology” or “I’m sorry” were never once uttered, his opponents nonetheless decided to construe the trips as some sort of mea culpa (make that Am

CAMBRIDGE ― The political fallout from Mitt Romney’s characterization of 47 percent of the American electorate as “victims” who are “dependent on government” and refuse to take “personal responsibility” for their lives demonstrates anew that cultural generalizations, particularly in politics, are usually dangerous. In fact, Romney appears to have categorized a large segment of his party’s own voters as supporters of President Barack Obama.As a rule, one should judge people on their merits, not o