In the 21st century the place of literature in university language programs is a dubious one. Its usefulness is questioned, even among the well-educated, and even among language professors themselves. For in the digital age the prevalent notion seems to be: If it’s not quantifiable, it’s not worth a damn.　I disagree with this current assumption. All knowledge is not reducible to mathematical data, or the scrutiny of scientific inquiry, or its direct value to the corporate/technological/political

In the glory days of the early 1980s, stocks and bonds were cheap and Wall Street became the center of the American economy. But those cheap asset prices did a lot of structural damage to US society, some of which is still becoming clear. The pricey stock market and skinny bond yields of 2017, by contrast, may pay unexpected dividends in the future.Asset prices tend to have an inverse relationship with the strength of the labor market. When unemployment is low, like it is now and like it was in

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, has guided his country’s monetary policy for most of the 21st century. He was appointed in 2002, shortly after China joined the World Trade Organization, and helped steer its economy through the global financial crisis. In the process, he gained widespread respect at home and a reputation for prudent liberalism abroad.Lately, Zhou has been circulating widely. At a forum in June, he criticized protectionism in China’s financial sector. In an

How can I tell if you have a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology? One way would be for me to ask about MIT. If they say yes, then you have a degree from MIT. If they say no, then you don‘t. That is what having a degree from MIT, customarily, means: that MIT acknowledges you as a graduate. MIT is an important credentialing institution because a lot of people trust its degree-granting process. It is, to use the term of art, a trusted intermediary. It is well suited to keep the le

My 22-year-old daughter recently visited South Korea country for the first time and doing so was not a decision her dad and I supported, owing to the current political unrest in the neighboring North Korea. However, she found the local people to be kind and generous, which made her stay relaxing and enjoyable. One incident that really punctuated how impressed I became with your country happened when she and her friends visited Busan. My daughter lost her wallet there. She and her friends scoured

It is bogus, it is dangerous, it was built on lies and capitulation, cheating has been going on, the so-called inspection system is a farce, and President Donald Trump wants to do something about it, this nuclear arms deal with Iran.Every 90 days the president has a responsibility to decertify the program if Iran has overstepped the bounds. It has and he did, but did not say we were walking out of the seven-party agreement that will almost certainly stay in place.All kinds of options are neverth

The country’s objective of building up its military strength and becoming dominant in the world as a “great power” has been established. But isn’t it nothing but hegemonism to assert that the country will make light of such universal values as the rule of law and instead rely more on strength?Held once every five years, the Communist Party of China’s National Congress opened, and the party’s general secretary, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a speech.Delivering the political report, which summ

Last week, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, charged in an interview with the New York Times that Donald Trump was treating his office like “a reality show,” with reckless threats toward other countries that could set the nation “on the path to World War III.”Corker said he was concerned about Trump: “He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.” Corker added that “the vast majority of our caucus understands what we‘re dealing with