San Francisco is one the most productive cities in the world and is the headquarters for several remarkably innovative and creative businesses, including Twitter, Uber, Lyft, and Fitbit, among others. But drug abusers have taken over several of its most densely populated neighborhoods and much of its central business district.
The publication of the rough transcript of the phone call — known as a “Memorandum of Telephone Conversation,” or TelCon for short — between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inspires nostalgic memories for me. I used to participate in similar calls for President Barack Obama during my days at the National Security Council. Between the 2008 election and my departure for Moscow in 2012 to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Russia, I arranged, prepped and listened to dozens of such calls. Yet in terms of logistics and tenor, the infamous Trump-Zelensky call appears to be unlike the calls I worked on between Obama and other world leaders.
Ukrainians look like Europeans, but — as a survey carried out for this year’s YES revealed — they are closer to Brazilians in their attitudes. They are sick of the status quo. And they are willing to gamble on a complete political outsider in the hope of radical change.
Whenever the Israeli–Palestinian question arises in Washington, an assumption inevitably precedes it: the United States has an important and unique role to play in advancing peace between these two peoples. Israelis and Palestinians might make progress alone (the 1993 Oslo Accords). But the two can only go so far, so we are told, without American mediation, primarily because only Washington can push Jerusalem into taking risks— “land for peace” and military restraint toward the security deficiencies of the Palestinian Authority—that are the stepping stones to a two-state solution, the endgame for a peaceful settlement.
Economic growth is driven by increases in productivity and labor. However, not all labor is the same. Some is low-skilled, low-valued-added, while other labor is high-skilled, high-value-added. It makes a big difference in the rate of growth if the increase in labor is low-skilled or high-skilled.
Those of us at Fordham have strived over the course of our organization’s two-decade existence to stay open to new evidence and to be willing to change our minds. For example, we shifted from the notion of "letting a thousand flowers bloom" when it came to charter schools to acknowledging that "some weeding is necessary" after multiple studies showed just how poor the achievement of some charters was turning out to be, and just how hard it was to actually shut such failing charter schools down. And there have been other smaller shifts over the years, too, on funding, teacher diversity, and more.
(9:25) Hoover Institution fellow Elizabeth Economy says the Chinese government will continue to use all the mechanisms they have at their disposal to keep their economy stable.
Condoleezza Rice, who was secretary of state from January 2005 to 2009 and the second woman, and first African American woman, to serve in that position, will visit Pittsburg Thursday to speak at Pittsburg State University.
Why don’t Democrats press policy instead of trying to unseat the president? Victor Davis Hanson at American Greatness gives the “simple answer: None of [the Dems’] issues poll anywhere near 50 percent approval.”
In 1990, I was a young Marine Corps Captain attending the US Army Armor Advanced Course in Ft. Knox, Kentucky. One insightful book that stood out was “King of the Killing Zone: The Story of the M-1, America’s Super Tank” by Orr Kelly, a longtime Washington defense reporter.
Suppressing dissent can lead to bad policies being passed, former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said in a LinkedIn Post on Monday. Stressing on the importance of criticism in a democracy, Rajan, who is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, wrote that governments that show lack of tolerance towards public, as well as internal, criticism do themselves a gross disservice.
Not all of the threats and challenges to the Federal Reserve’s independence and credibility are external, according to former Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser.
Sometimes, a combination of history and fate, leaders and qualities of leadership meet at an intersection to shape a turning point in a nation’s unending search for freedom for its citizens and the development of the country. Nothing creates more bitterness than promises made and not kept. Nigeria at 59 is like celebrating a rich past and a lamentation of a fading future.
In anticipation of the 2020 elections, candidates have made campaign promises to make our country better. The high costs of a college education, medical treatment, improving our environment, housing, etc. are just some of our current problems. President Trump puts a heavy emphasis on the marketplace to provide needed products and services. By contrast, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders embrace more government intervention.
I shake my head and smile every time Ryan Holiday sends me an advance copy of his latest book. Even though his skill as a writer makes me feel weighed, measured, and found wanting, I immediately put down whatever I was reading and dive right in.
How impeachment could impact the economy — I write here this morning about ways in which a long and ugly impeachment battle could hamper an economy that is already in a bit of a slow patch. Risks include a stalled USMCA and hits to consumer and business confidence. During the Clinton impeachment in 1998, growth surged close to 5 percent, offering a political buffer.
Sajid Javid hates identity politics and has spent most of his political career avoiding it. But his speech today showed how effective he can be when he discusses his own life story.
