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[Stephen L. Carter] More rules for launching nukes won’t make US safer

ViewpointsSept 24, 2017

“We have taken every step man can devise,” said President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, “to insure that neither a madman nor a malfunction could trigger nuclear war.” Apparently lots of people are starting to doubt that this is true. The latest entrant is an op-ed article this week in the New York Times. The authors, Jeffrey Bader and Jonathan D. Pollack, call for legislation requiring that “a small group of officials” give unanimous consent before the president can use nuclear weapons, at least if th
[William Magnuson] Next crisis will start in Silicon Valley

ViewpointsSept 21, 2017

It has been 10 years since the last financial crisis, and some have already started to predict that the next one is near. But when it comes, it will likely have its roots in Silicon Valley, not Wall Street.The world of finance looks very different today than it did 10 years ago. In 2007, our biggest concern was “too big to fail.” Wall Street banks had grown to such staggering sizes, and had become so central to the health of the financial system, that no rational government could let them fail.
[James Stavridis] Naval blockade is best option to cut off North Korea

ViewpointsSept 21, 2017

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is fixated on obtaining a serious nuclear arsenal, and continues to thumb his nose at the US and other world powers. The latest round of United Nations Security Council sanctions approved on Sept. 11 are not going to change that. But one aspect of them -- new measures to interdict ships breaking trade embargoes against Pyongyang -- could be baby steps toward much stronger sanctions enforcement.The new resolution gives the US and other countries the power to inspec
[Christopher Balding] Why China is so confident

ViewpointsSept 21, 2017

If you only read the headlines -- or, say, my columns -- you might be pessimistic about China’s economy. Recent news has been dominated by a crackdown on capital outflows, worries about rapid debt growth, and efforts to rein in a risky overseas investment binge.Yet ordinary Chinese are highly optimistic: The China Consumer Confidence Index hit 114.6 in July, a level not seen since 1996. This is a logical reaction to some significant improvements in China’s economic outlook. And for the governmen
Trump bluntly threatens to wipe out NK in UN debut

WorldSept 20, 2017

President Donald Trump bluntly threatened North Korea with annihilation if it menaces the US or its allies and delivered a provocative argument to leaders of the world that they should embrace nationalism even when confronting collective threats.In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump at times cast aside conventions of political and diplomatic dialogue in favor of the aggressive dialect of social media. He vowed to crush “the loser terrorists” in the Mideast and pinned
[Leonid Bershidsky] The Zapad military exercise reveals Putin’s fear

ViewpointsSept 18, 2017

The large-scale Russian military exercise known as Zapad, which started in Belarus on Thursday, is already a propaganda success: It has alarmed Russia’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization neighbors and garnered so much Western media coverage that one might think it was an actual combat operation. But it has also provided an important insight into the fears of the Russian and Belarusian rulers, fears that are not necessarily groundless.To Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, the exercise is m
[Bloomberg] How China should go electric

ViewpointsSept 18, 2017

With China’s decision to phase out gas- and diesel-fueled vehicles, the end is nearer for the internal combustion engine. For their nation to reap the full benefits of this revolution, Chinese leaders will need to continue to be bold.Nations that account for almost 80 percent of the world auto market are now planning or considering plans to end over the next few decades the sale of cars and trucks powered by fossil fuels. Big carmakers, many of whom have responded only tepidly to previous govern
[David Volodzko] North Korea’s secret weapon? Economic growth

ViewpointsSept 17, 2017

With the United Nations imposing yet another round of sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear provocations, it’s worth asking why such penalties have been failing for more than a decade. One reason is that the North Korean economy is improving more than is commonly understood -- and that will make altering its behavior through trade barriers significantly harder.The current approach to sanctions is partly based on the assumption that North Korea’s economy is a socialist nightmare, but that’s no
[Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry] Why Macron doesn’t fear France’s unions

ViewpointsSept 17, 2017

The first street protests against Emmanuel Macron’s proposed labor market reforms have been underwhelming. Several major unions stayed away. Estimates of the turnout varied -- from 223,000, according to fairly reliable police figures, to 500,000, according to the CGT, France’s biggest union, which called for the march. Whatever the real number, French unions are divided, and this helps Macron’s reform efforts.This is unusual. France’s unions are traditionally a united front against pro-market re
North Korean acts become like `Boy Who Cried Wolf' for markets

MarketsSept 15, 2017

Traders are getting less excited by North Korean provocations, judging by the diminished reactions in financial markets to the dictatorship’s weapons tests.Consider the yen. A highly liquid instrument, it’s a haven in times of geopolitical or global financial stress so is perhaps the most sensitive asset to look at for immediate reaction to North Korean acts. The currency soared as much as 0.6 percent against the dollar within about a minute on Friday morning after the news Pyongyang
Apple unveils iPhone X with new display as rivals grow

TechnologySept 13, 2017

Apple Inc. unveiled its most important new iPhone for years to take on growing competition from Samsung Electronics Co., Google and a host of Chinese smartphone makers.Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook showed off the iPhone X with an edge-to-edge screen during an event at the company’s new $5 billion headquarters in Cupertino, California, on Tuesday. Cook pronounced the name "ten," but it’s written as "X." The device, coming a decade after the original model, is Apple’s first major redesign since
[Leonid Bershidsky] Negotiate with North Korea? A Russian tried

ViewpointsSept 11, 2017

Negotiating with North Korea about the future of its nuclear program is often mentioned as an alternative to a military intervention. Neither is a viable option, says Vitaly Mansky, one of the few people who know first-hand what it’s like to negotiate with North Koreans and achieve a measure of success.In May 2013, Mansky’s documentary production company signed a deal with the Korea Film Export & Import Corporation, a North Korean government agency, to jointly make a movie called “Under the Sun.
[Eli Lake] Art of renegotiating Iran nuclear deal

ViewpointsSept 11, 2017

Since Donald Trump assumed the presidency, European allies have worried he will fulfill his campaign promise and pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal.Trump’s national security cabinet has a different idea. US officials tell me that a new strategy on the agreement is ready for the president’s approval. Instead of blowing it apart, the plan is to make it stronger.The idea can be summed up as “waive, decertify and fix.” On Sept. 14, Trump is expected to waive the crippling sanctions on Iran’s b
[Meghan L. O’Sullivan] Trump can’t solve North Korea by just making a deal

ViewpointsSept 7, 2017

President Donald J. Trump’s tweet this weekend that the US might terminate all trade with countries doing business with North Korea was widely derided on the grounds of realism. Given that 90 percent of North Korea’s trade is with China, the tweet was little more than a veiled threat to terminate all US trade with Beijing, ending a bilateral trade relationship valued at $650 billion a year. It would, as many correctly pointed out, mean economic disaster for North Korea -- and also for the US.The
[Bloomberg] How to make bad situation in North Korea worse

ViewpointsSept 6, 2017

There are, as is often noted, no good options for dealing with North Korea. All the more reason for the US not to make the few it does have even worse.That‘s what President Donald Trump is doing by linking the security threat posed by North Korea with his trade agenda. Irked by China’s failure to help the US rein in North Korea‘s nuclear program, and having been stymied in his attempts to retaliate against Chinese steel dumping and intellectual property infringements, he’s vowing an implausible