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November 22, 2024
 

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Robert J. Samuelson
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2014
Time to say goodbye to the business cycle?
The many failures of economics before, during and after the recent financial crisis have left an intellectual vacuum. It seems that governments' past success in stabilizing the economy in the short run encouraged too much debt and instability in the long term.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2014
Bewildering take on the American job market
With the U.S. government's latest monthly employment report, the American job market has entered a bewildering phase. The U.S. may be closer to 'full employment' than is commonly supposed, but the weak recovery since 2009 is hardly typical of economic cycles since World War II.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2014
A memorial to horror and honor
More fitting than any commentary about Memorial Day, just celebrated in the U.S., is the description of Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox to Ulysses S. Grant, which ended the Civil War.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2014
Is China the top economic power?
New World Bank figures suggesting that China's GDP will overtake that of the U.S. sometime this year raise profound issues for Americans who have presumed that postwar economic affluence depends on countries becoming more like the U.S.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2014
Biased media give customers what they want
A study by two University of Chicago economists disputes the conventional wisdom that publishers impose their views on newsrooms. What actually happens is both more innocent and more insidious.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2014
Double tragedy of long-term unemployment
To be among America's long-term unemployed — workers who have been jobless at least six months — is especially demoralizing for midcareer professionals and managers in their 40s and up because, from the perspective of potential employers, not hiring these workers can make sense.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2014
Obama gambles by slashing defense spending
The Obama administration's 2015 military budget cuts may embolden potential adversaries and abet miscalculation.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2014
Wrong debate on economic inequality in U.S.
The theory that growing inequality in the 2000s caused many low- and middle-income Americans to over-borrow so that they could keep up with wealthier Americans doesn't hold up. The right debate is on why lenders relaxed credit standards.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2014
Welfare state taking over the U.S. government
The budget story that is largely missed by American political leaders and the public is that the welfare state is strangling government's ability to respond to other national problems, because the constituencies for welfare benefits are more powerful than their competitors for federal support.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2014
Myths about economic inequality
True, the gap between the rich and the poor is enormous, wider than most Americans would wish, but this reality has made economic inequality a misleading intellectual fad, blamed for many of our problems.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2014
Benjamin Bernanke's triumph — and defeat
In the initial days of the 2008-09 financial crisis, Ben Bernanke, the outgoing U.S. Federal Reserce chairm, mobilized the Fed as the lender of last resort and, arguably, averted a second Great Depression. His efforts to kick-start the economy by keeping short-term interest rates low and by massive bond-buying were less successful.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2013
Like other U.S. cities, Detroit must reinvent itself
If nothing else, Detroit's bankruptcy marks the symbolic closure of an era when heavy industry dominated the American economy and the U.S. dominated the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2013
Is the age of automation taking a toll on jobs?
American colleges aren't worse today, but the skills required for solving unstructured problems and working with new info have become more complex.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2013
High tech and the road to 'full employment'
The U.S. may not regain 'full employment' anytime soon. Companies didn't just fire workers during the Great Recession; they went on a hiring strike.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2013
IMF's global forecast makes for dreary reading
The International Monetary Fund's latest global economic forecast makes for unhappy reading. You may remember that, some years back, it was fashionable to ask whether the world economy could continue "flying on one engine" — meaning the United States. America's boom and import appetite boosted other...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2013
Beware the Internet and the danger of cyberattacks
Economics columnist Robert J. Samuelson has had it with the Internet. He says its astonishing capability to access information is not worth the dangers from cyberwar.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2013
'Privileged' dollar a cause of lopsided growth
For years, the dollar's role as the major global currency has been described as an 'exorbitant privilege.' Now it may be turning into an extravagant curse.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2013
The up- and downside for the biggest economy
'Is America in decline?' may be the wrong question, as most of the affluent world — including U.S., Europe and Japan — faces similar threats.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2013
Address shows Obama is playing make-believe
There was a make-believe quality to U.S. President Barack Obama's second inaugural address, as if all that's required to solve serious problems are the intelligence to produce proper policies and the political grit to get them approved. Perish the thought that there are deep conflicts among the things...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2013
Obama's quest for greatness
Barack Obama's quest to achieve presidential 'greatness' will probably be denied because none of America's problems rises to the level of mortal peril.
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.
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.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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

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