As former secretaries of commerce, with direct oversight of the US Census Bureau, we have grave concerns about the proposed addition of a citizenship question to the decennial census in 2020. If included, this question will put in jeopardy the accuracy of the data that the census collects, and increase costs. 　The census should not be a partisan issue. Mandated under the US constitution, the census requires the actual enumeration of all persons in the United States, not simply all citizens. In f

Not long ago I attended an informal session in San Francisco on, basically, how to make the world a better place. Most of the attendees were from the Bay Area, and the technology industry. I was struck by how their approaches and perspectives differed from what I am used to, living in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington.　Many participants announced visions of a better and very different future, such as letting top scientists operate without financial constraints. It was implied that we

The recent March for Our Lives in the United States inspired millions not just across America, but also around the world. Until the nationwide demonstrations on March 24, most people thought that little new could be added to the conversation about the seemingly endless rounds of gun killings.Yet the brave and moving way in which, out of their anguish and pain, young people told the world that decisions on gun laws and safe schools are too important to be left to adults who had let them down has

The prices of industrial metals, oil and other commodities have risen significantly since the Chinese manufacturing recession ended in June 2016. But many have fallen from their highs in January 2018, first in reaction to the risk of higher interest rates and now, more critically, because of trade tensions and the potential for global manufacturing and growth to be slower than expected.　The potential for slower growth due to US and reciprocal tariffs was highlighted by the International Monetary

The boldest plan to achieve the targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement comes from China. The Paris accord commits the world’s governments to keeping global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius relative to the preindustrial level. This can be accomplished mainly by shifting the world’s primary energy sources from carbon-based fossil fuels to zero-carbon, renewable (wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, ocean, biomass) and nuclear energy by the year 2050. China’s Global Energy Interconnectio

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump shared some thoughts on immigration that strongly suggest he either isn’t paying much attention to current events or he’s just trying to stir up his core supporters again in the face of congressional inaction and negative attention in the media. Either is a possibility; a combination of both is a probability. If he can denounce dark-skinned immigrants, the Mexican government and Democrats in one fell tweet, this is a president who is willing to put in the

Getting in a trade war with China or anyone else is economically suicidal, a way to disrupt everything and anything, and here is hope that what we are really seeing is the art of the deal. What you do is make egregious demands and then back down as the other side sees the hurt of obstinance and the benefit of concessions.　Maybe that’s what the Trump administration is really up to in its talk about $60 billion worth of tariffs on China, and there are signs of such a thing. China, in addition to s

Before Wednesday evening, I’d never seen a single episode of “Roseanne.” But in the interest of cultural commentary, I cranked up my ABC.com app to see what all the fuss -- and the extraordinarily high ratings -- was about. Here’s what I learned.　1) It’s knowing. From the moment Dan Conner (John Goodman) wakes with a start, we’re in a familiar world rarely seen on TV. His face is covered by a plastic mask with a breathing tube. The show assumes the audience recognizes what it is: a CPAP (continu

The conventional wisdom in Washington these days says that Secretary of Defense James Mattis is the one man who can save the nation from war. The new secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is a hawk’s hawk. And don’t get the foreign policy establishment started on incoming national security adviser, John Bolton. President Donald Trump himself pines for military parades and asserts that torturing terrorists “works.”　Like most conventional wisdom in the Trump era, however, this is all wrong -- for a num