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November 22, 2024
 

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Robert Samuelson
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2013
America can't afford the Amtrak train fantasy
The fact that a program as wasteful of taxpayers' money as Amtrak has so many defenders is more evidence why the U.S. budget debates are stuck.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2013
Italian election gives Europeans a reality check
For a while, Europe's political elites had convinced themselves the worst of the euro crisis had passed. Italy's latest election quashes this optimism.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2013
Psychology is to blame for weak U.S. growth
U.S. job creation is weak because, since 2008-2009, Americans have gone from being an expansive, risk-taking society to a skittish, risk-averse one.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 5, 2013
Learning from Japan's struggle
Americans could learn from a new prime minister's efforts to revive the flagging economy of Japan, once viewed as the next economic superpower.
COMMENTARY
May 30, 2012
It's time U.S. dropped the college-for-all crusade
The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all Americans homeowners, it's now doing more harm than good. It looms as the largest mistake in educational policy since World War II, even though higher education's expansion also ranks as one of America's...
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2012
Costs of being too responsive to the public will
The Washington of conventional wisdom and the real Washington are two entirely different places.
COMMENTARY
Apr 25, 2012
What happens to world's economy if Spain fails?
Just when you thought the world economy might be improving, along comes Spain. It's Europe's next economic domino, struggling to cope with big budget deficits, massive unemployment and an angry public. Will it fail — and, if so, with what consequences?
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2012
Look at Social Security for what it is: welfare
Would Franklin Roosevelt (the 32nd U.S. president) approve of Social Security? The question seems absurd. After all, Social Security is considered the New Deal's signature achievement. It distributes nearly $800 billion a year to 56 million retirees, survivors and disabled beneficiaries.
COMMENTARY
Apr 5, 2012
Is American energy 'independence' possible?
Call it President Richard Nixon's revenge.
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2012
Pinpointing the causes of the U.S. economic crisis
Four years after the onset of the financial crisis — in March 2008 Bear Stearns was rescued from failure — we still lack a clear understanding of the underlying causes. Hundreds of studies and books have given us an increasingly detailed picture of what happened without conclusively answering why....
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2012
Japan's cautionary tale for the U.S.
Since the financial crisis, a shadow has hovered over the U.S. economy: Japan. Could what happened there happen to us? The bursting of Japan's real estate and stock bubble in the early 1990s has had lasting consequences: a "lost decade" (actually, two) of meager growth and weak job markets. Though hardly...
COMMENTARY
Mar 12, 2012
Fear and consequences of defense budget cuts
It turns out that "budget sequestration," portrayed as an evenhanded way to spur bipartisan negotiations over budget deficits, is actually a dagger aimed at defense spending. The president and other top administration officials have said the automatic spending cuts required by sequestration are "bad...
COMMENTARY
Mar 5, 2012
Will American values outlast the social storm?
In 1924, the sociologist couple Robert and Helen Lynd arrived in a small Midwestern city they called Middletown (it was Muncie, Ind.) to study and survey the place.
COMMENTARY
Feb 22, 2012
Campaign finance reform fails to reach goals
The emergence of super PACs shows once again that "campaign finance reform" has failed abysmally. After nearly four decades, it has achieved none of its goals. It has not purged politics of big donations, nor cured public cynicism about the influence of the rich, nor made elected leaders more trusted....
COMMENTARY
Feb 15, 2012
Disability program reveals U.S. budget quagmire
Social Security's disability program is a political quagmire — and a metaphor for why federal spending and budget deficits are so difficult to control. The numbers are too big; the details, too complicated; and the choices, when faced, too wrenching. President Barack Obama's new budget, estimated at...
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2012
World economy's uncharted territory
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." — L.P. Hartley, English novelist
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2012
Lesson of Great Recession is too hard to accept
The recent release of the 2006 transcripts of the Federal Reserve's main policymaking body stimulated a small media frenzy: "Little Alarm Shown at Fed at Dawn of Housing Bust," headlined The Wall Street Journal. The Washington Post agreed: "As financial crisis brewed, Fed appeared unconcerned." The New...
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2012
Typecast 'vulture capitalist' has work cut out
For Mitt Romney, it's the best of times and the worst of times. While his New Hampshire win brings him closer to the Republican nomination, his campaign narrative against President Barack Obama may be unraveling.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2012
Why Obama will (won't) win re-election in 2012
Could 2012 turn conventional wisdom on its head? Here's the conventional wisdom: U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election is vulnerable to the weak economy and high joblessness. Here's what might happen: The economy gradually improves, and although unemployment stays high (exceeding 8 percent), what...
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2011
Debt undermines the classic answer to recession
"Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono
The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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