The defining characteristic of crony capitalism is the ability of favored elites to loot with impunity and the failure of regulators to do their jobs.We have seen this in the financial crisis that started in 2008 and in an earlier era, when the savings-and-loan industry collapsed.In the Texas “Rent-a-Bank” scandal of the 1970s, for example, two ringleaders created a fraud network of 50 lenders tha

The killing of Osama bin Laden could be a transformational moment for Pakistan and its military. The country has an opportunity now to decide whether it wants to decisively confront Islamist violence or face the consequences of the military’s current policy of giving support to jihadis with one hand even as it slaps them with the other. If Pakistan chooses this second path, it will be increasingly

Last year I visited a friend of mine, journalist Raul Silva, in a working-class neighborhood of Cuernavaca. A popular destination for tourists and students of Spanish, the city, about 60 miles south of the Mexican capital, was on edge. Only a few weeks before, a drug gang had audaciously displayed its power, issuing a curfew one Friday night, warning that anyone out after 8 p.m. might be “mistaken

Obama pulls another Osama. He signs the orders. The operation succeeds. This time the target is another great enemy: the federal debt.Or so, at least, runs the national daydream.That Americans indulge themselves in such quirky fantasies reflects a desperation about reality. The reality is that in domestic affairs, President Barack Obama moves not like a leader who nailed Osama bin Laden, but like

President Obama should take full advantage of the opportunity provided by the death of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden to reshape dramatically U.S. policy related to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.For a decade, this country has expended an inordinate amount of its resources, not to mention the more than 1,500 soldiers killed, to fight a war in Afghanistan that never promised to yield compara

Nguyen Van Giau sighs audibly and shifts in his chair when I ask him the dreaded question: Is Vietnam losing its inflation battle?It’s one the country’s central bank governor can barely go an hour without fielding these days. Such is life in a nation where consumer prices climbed almost 18 percent in April from a year earlier.Giau’s assurances that he’s committed to taming inflation aren’t resonat

BANGKOK ― The military skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia that have claimed more than two dozen lives, caused scores of injuries, and displaced tens of thousands of people since February are primarily attributable to domestic politics in both countries. Rooted in ancient enmities and the legacy of the colonial era, the fighting is damaging the entire region. So virulent is the dispute that e

There is something surreal about Pakistani officials’ reaction to the killing of Osama bin Laden.Their focus has been wholly on the violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty by the U.S. raid, rather than the fact that bin Laden was living well in their country. The army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, warned he would not tolerate any repeat of such covert action; the country’s foreign secretary, Salma

The American mission in Afghanistan changed with two quick shots from a Navy SEAL last Sunday.The calls for reflection on the nature of the war on terror with the death of Osama bin Laden have merit. Al-Qaida and its leader were the reasons behind 100,000 U.S. troops facing daily dangers.In a world without bin Laden, the terror war could be as legitimately staged in Somalia, Yemen or Iran.Even bef

Even though the threat of a government shutdown is over for now, the federal services that Americans depend on are still at risk of disappearing.House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s proposal to reduce the deficit by gutting $375 billion from the federal government in the next 10 years would severely threaten the important work of the nation’s federal workforce.As would the recommendations put forth b