Noah Smith

The world is anxiously watching the Chinese housing market, in the wake of property developer China Evergrande Group’s potential default. Market watchers have been drawing comparisons to the US crash in 2008, and some even to Japan’s property bust two decades earlier. But although there are some…

Kamala Harris’ historic visit to Vietnam — the first time a US vice president has visited the country since the end of the war — has got me thinking about the relationship between the two countries. Both nations’ interests would be served by a closer economic partnership. But making such a…

Taiwan’s world-beating semiconductor company, TSMC, is chartering a container ship to move pieces of equipment to its new factory in Arizona. The move may herald a new era of foreign investment in the US— but only if America plays its cards right. The key will be to see global supply chains as an…

As the Taliban reconquers Afghanistan in the wake of the US withdrawal, the US has a moral obligation to allow in refugees. Many Afghans worked for the US during the occupation, often risking their lives to do so; they've earned the right to a safe home in the country they chose to support…

The world has failed to halt climate change and is starting to feel the consequences. But for the first time, there's also hope on the horizon. Technology has made climate change a solvable problem by expanding the universe of the possible. Before advancements made renewable energy a cost…

The US economic recovery is being threatened by the Covid-19 delta variant. Increasing vaccination rates is the most important thing the US can do to sustain the economy over the next few months. Beyond that, however, full recovery might require creating new vaccines against delta and other…

It’s good to see that some US politicians are still working on fixing the country’s broken health care system. Proposals from Senator Bernie Sanders had some very promising elements, though also some less helpful ones. Unfortunately, it seems that the only piece of his plan likely to make it into…

The West Coast had a homelessness crisis even before the pandemic. Now it's worse. Fortunately, the solution is already well-established: Just give homeless people a place to live. Republican President George W. Bush helped prove the effectiveness of that simple idea; what we need is a return to…

Antitrust is again becoming a hot issue in the US, with a new bill advancing through Congress taking aim at top technology companies. There are the usual concerns about monopoly power, and also reason to worry about big-company dominance of key industries. Becoming over-reliant on just one or two…

With policy shifting away from Covid relief toward more long-term goals such as shoring up infrastructure and promoting competition, US lawmakers have a rare opportunity to address the American economy’s deep structural issues. And because the pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to businesses,…