When Americans travel abroad, the culture shocks tend to be unpleasant. Robert Locke’s experience was different. In buying a charming if rundown house in the picturesque German town of Goerlitz, he was surprised – very pleasantly – to find city officials second-guessing the deal. The price he had agreed was too high, they said, and... Read More

The guillotine has an image problem, but you can say this for it: even in today’s deeply hollowed out America, someone somewhere can probably still make a sharp blade. The same cannot be said for sodium thiopental, an anesthetic used in execution by lethal injection. Since 2010, when the last American manufacturer Hospira decided to... Read More

Tylenol, Johnson & Johnson’s big selling painkiller, is in the news today after Swedish researchers raised questions about its active ingredient, acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol). The researchers, based at Uppsala University, found that the ingredient can cause “long-lasting” cognitive effects in young mice, including decreased learning and memory capabilities. Paracetamol is the key ingredient... Read More

In this space last week Ihighlighted Boeing’s program to transfer much of its most advanced technology to Japan, and suggested the company is committing the industrial equivalent of assisted suicide (with the Tokyo industry ministry gamely playing the role of Dr. Kevorkian). Among the more perceptive reader comments was that of a puzzled friend in... Read More

After some scarifying teething problems, the Boeing Dreamliner now seems to be becoming belatedly accepted as the wonder plane it was always cracked up to be. Though that is excellent news, it says far less about the health of the U.S. aerospace industry than Boeing executives would have you to believe. The fact is that... Read More

As we enter 2014, it is appropriate to review my recent stock-picking record. After a year of excellent success in 2012, I have to admit that my performance in 2013 has been a mixed bag. On the one hand I had a good spurt with my ten Japanese stock picks of March 2013. When I... Read More

It’s Panic Saturday, the last big shopping day before Christmas. If you are racing to find a stocking stuffer for an economically curious friend, I have the very thing: Thom Hartmann’s new book The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America – and What We Can Do to Stop It. The book is a... Read More

Flash memory has now become the norm for hard disk drives in tablets and laptops. Manufactured in East Asia, it is a globally traded commodity much like oil or copper. The East Asian ex-factory price for a standard 16-gigabyte unit recently was less than $10. Which raises a question: how come Apple’s price is more... Read More

Silicon Valley is a famously eclectic place but even by Silicon Valley standards, Caroline Dowling had an unusual start in life. The daughter of a truck driver, she got pregnant at 15, and never finished high-school. She went on to do bartending and housework in her native Ireland, before launching herself on a business career... Read More

Judging by how drivers behave when they’re lost, female and male brains are different. Women drivers famously tend to stop and ask for directions — or at least consult their smartphones. Men are more likely to trust their instincts, thereby risking not only a 20-minute detour but a stern tongue-lashing from any unfortunate female on... Read More

For authors seeking back-cover endorsements for their books, Henry Kissinger is a serious get. As he turns down virtually all authors’ requests, it is interesting to speculate on his motives in recommending Josef Joffe’s new book The Myth of America’s Decline. In Kissinger’s words, the book “effectively lays to rest the belief that America has... Read More

At the age of 65, I know what I am talking about: of my many friends who have already passed on, most were cigarette smokers. I don’t remember a single one who was ever pleased to have discovered tobacco. Not in health. Still less in illness. So why is the tobacco industry permitted to continue... Read More

Is Amazon driving its workers so hard they risk “mental and physical illness”? That’s the opinion of Sir Michael Marmot, a top expert on the causes of stroke and heart disease at the University of London, after viewing video footage secretly recorded at Amazon’s mammoth warehouse in Swansea, Wales, by Adam Littler, an undercover reporter... Read More

Under the weight of Edward Snowden’s leaks, the Obama administration has come under heavy pressure to foreswear spying on allies. Secretary of State John Kerry in particular seems to be weakening. Here is how he put it in a recent conference call with European interlocutors: “In some cases, I acknowledge to you, as has the... Read More

American newspapers have long been notorious for the credulousness of their foreign correspondents. But even by the American press’s normal standards, the Washington Post excelled itself the other day. Its Tokyo correspondent, Max Fisher, reported in all seriousness that the Japanese are not getting enough sex. He added: “This is more than a story about... Read More

The U.S. dollar’s reserve currency role is almost over, says former top Reagan administration economic adviser Paul Craig Roberts. As he points out, the dollar’s international credibility was dealt another hammer blow by the federal shutdown in October. Of particular note is the fact that the shutdown revived fears, albeit exaggerated ones, that the U.S.... Read More

For years now the American press has trumpeted a supposed revival in American manufacturing. “Reshoring,” they call it. A resurgent United States seemingly is winning back much manufacturing that had previously seemed lost to China and other export-hungry East Asian nations. Stirring stuff – at least it would be if it were true. Unfortunately it... Read More

President Barack Obama is under mounting pressure to foreswear American efforts to spy on nations like Germany. Now the New York Times has added to his difficulties with a disingenuous commentary by Alison Smale, a British editor who often sides with the Germans in international spats. The pressure is taking its toll and Obama seems... Read More

Many House Republicans blame their intransigence in the current federal funding crisis on fears that they will be subjected to primary challenges in the next election. On the principle that turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, there is something in this. Certainly the Tea Party has an impressive record of derailing any Republican deemed not sufficiently... Read More

Yesterday I predicted that the winner of the 2013 Nobel economics prize would be an Anglophone quack – and in all probability as dangerous a quack as so many previous laureates. The news from Stockholm today is that the 2013 prize will be shared by three economists – Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, and Robert... Read More

Monday morning update: The Bank of Sweden has now announced the 2013 prize and I have posted a separate commentary here. EF Any day now the Bank of Sweden will announce a new Nobel economics laureate. Judging by the bank’s record, he is likely to be an aging Anglophone, Caucasian male. He is also likely... Read More

With Wall Street suddenly in turmoil and no end in sight to the federal shutdown, I thought it would be interesting to revisit some Japanese stocks I recommended in March. They have not disgraced themselves. Overall my ten recommendations of March 12 are up on average 15.3 percent. By comparison the Standard & Poor’s 500... Read More

In their never-say-die efforts to defeat Obamacare, Tea Party Republicans brought the federal government a giant step closer to shutdown last night. What they seem not to have considered is how America’s foreign creditors will react. Although China, Japan, and other major creditor nations have no dog in the Obamacare fight, they have a strong... Read More

As German voters go to the polls today, it is interesting to consider their rather self-confident world view – and how sharply it contrasts with the increasing self-doubts that have gripped the American people in recent years. The German economy’s vigorous good health is most obvious in jobs. The German unemployment rate has remained consistently... Read More

For those of us who view the American economy from abroad, one of the biggest puzzles of recent years has been President Obama’s reported wish to appoint Larry Summers the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. As Mark Leibovich has pointed out in This Town, a hilarious new book on theWashington eco-system of show-boating, social... Read More