World News Insights: Opinion Articles

When I was going through the confirmation process in 2006 to be commander of US Southern Command — in charge of all joint military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean — I was often asked about the Monroe Doctrine. Issued in 1823 by President James Monroe, it warned European nations…

All tenants of 10 Downing Street know that British politics is driven by combat each Wednesday at Prime Minister’s Questions. Faced with a crisis, leaders must display strength and conviction to friend and foe alike. Betray weakness and they are doomed. In the scandal over illicit parties during…

What should be an ordinary commercial dispute between Amazon.com Inc. and the founders of a near-bankrupt retailer is shining a harsh light on the quality of legal and regulatory protection investors actually receive in India. The long drawn-out saga has thrown up two questions for prospective…

Netflix Inc. delivered a slew of hits in the fourth quarter, with “Red Notice” and “Don’t Look Up” among its top three most-watched movies ever. But quarterly results underscored why programming success no longer automatically translates to a level of subscriber growth once common for the streaming…

In May 1990, I was one of the journalists who covered the Arab Summit conference in Baghdad. I remember what then-President Saddam Hussein said during that summit, holding his pen between his fingers as if lecturing the attending leaders and chiefs of states. He spoke about changes in the region…

Crypto is seemingly everywhere in 2022. The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies is still above $2 trillion despite some recent losses. In 2021, people spent more than $44 billion on non-fungible tokens, or virtual ownership rights on digital objects — an amount that approached the total size…

The New York Times reports that President Joe Biden: “Will retreat from the tangle of day-to-day negotiations with members of his own party that have made him seem powerless to advance key priorities, according to senior White House advisers. The change is part of an intentional reset in how he…

Lots of readers responded to my Jan. 5 newsletter discussing a new book, “Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life,” by the Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff. I’ve already responded to many of you by email but nothing beats hearing from Kotlikoff…

“How Civil Wars Start,” a new book by the political scientist Barbara F. Walter, was cited all over the place in the days around the anniversary of last winter’s riot at the Capitol. The New Yorker’s David Remnick, Vox’s Zack Beauchamp and my colleague Michelle Goldberg all invoked Walter’s work in…

Empires often dress themselves in lavish garments whose burdens they, at some point, cannot bear, failing to find a way to pay the steep costs required to expand, maintain or defend them. These empires lose their minds when those garments are ripped apart, behaving as though they are totally…

“Cautiously optimistic!” This is how European Union’s foreign policy spokesman Josep Borrel sees the current talks in Vienna centered on the “nuke deal” concocted by then US President Barack Obama six years ago. Whether or not Borrel, who has no meaningful role in the talks, is relevant, is…

Inflation isn’t just a domestic problem. Sure, year-on-year inflation hitting 7%, the highest rate in four decades, is threatening to derail Joe Biden’s presidency. As my Bloomberg colleague John Authers has written, the inflationary trend appears broad and durable. Yet now as before, inflation…