Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is a pragmatic Texan with plenty of experience in Latin America, gleaned over his decades in the oil business. As he wraps up a five-day tour of the vibrant world to the south, he would do well to remember the words of Jorge Ramos, the sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued Univision journalist, who said of its contributions to literature: “It’s no coincidence that magic realism happens in Latin America, because for us dreams and aspirations are part of life.” Finding the

The Berlin Wall divided the city for 28 years, two months and 28 days starting Aug. 13, 1961. It ended on Nov. 9, 1989, when Guenter Schabowski, a top East German official, erroneously announced that crossing into West Berlin was now permitted. Now that the same amount of time -- 28 years, two months and 28 days -- has passed, it’s fitting that the next German government is expected to end the solidarity tax created to even out economic differences between both sides.　While there’s little sign o

Investors in US equities and bonds headed for the doors on Friday, with the bearish sentiment extending to global markets as the new week began Monday. The immediate cause of the sell-off was the jobs report for January, which showed that average hourly wages rose at the fastest annual pace since 2009. 　But the rising pay was a false alarm. Workers were employed for fewer hours last month, reducing their weekly take-home pay compared with December, and significantly slowing the pace of increase

The heightened perception of a Russian threat to the West could have at least one positive consequence: The admission of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Fyrom) to the European Union. But the massive rallies in Athens on Sunday, with at least 140,000 protesting the Greek government’s apparent willingness to compromise on Macedonia’s name, show that the 26-year-old issue isn’t about to fade away.　Ever since Yugoslavia broke up in 1991, Macedonia has lacked a permanent official name beca

In China, the cars are becoming smarter. Last week, Alibaba Group Holding and Foxconn Technology led a $348 million fundraising round for Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology, a 3-year-old startup developing internet-connected, electric cars. The investment might seem an odd one for online retailer Alibaba. But it’s part of a larger vision for transportation that includes tools to design and run entire cities. Indeed, with backing from the Chinese government, Alibaba could soon seize the lead ov

There is an acute struggle dividing US voters that isn’t about Democrats versus Republicans or differences on issues.It’s about the public’s optimistic view of the economy during the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency and the simultaneously pessimistic view of Trump himself. The contrast is striking.　Polls show overwhelming satisfaction with the state of the economy, the most since the final three years of President Bill Clinton’s administration and the early months of the George W. Bush pr

As a middle-aged rock fan, I have a problem many of my peers would relate to: Every year, more of my favorite musicians die, and every year, the list seems to get longer. It took me a few days to get over the recent loss of The Fall’s Mark E. Smith; my wife was stricken when the Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan -- who was my age -- suddenly died last month.　I’m not sure, though, that I’m down with the way some innovative companies are trying to fill the void.　I understand the economics behind last

To hear some US politicians tell it, President Donald Trump’s threats to withdraw from NAFTA, build a wall and kick out the Dreamers may cast a decisive shadow over Mexico’s upcoming presidential election. Yet if Mexicans do vote for change, it will more likely be because they are fed up by homegrown woes, beginning with the blatant impunity that has fueled criminal violence and rampant corruption.　While Mexico’s surging homicide rate understandably draws top media billing, widespread corporate

President Donald Trump alone hasn’t surrendered US strategic leadership in Asia to China. What he has done is accelerate long-term trends that have severely diminished America’s position in the Western Pacific, an area where the US had held sway largely unchallenged since World War II.That era of primacy is close to an end. In fact, the US strategic position is eroding so quickly that even sharing the region with China isn’t really a valid option any longer, argues Hugh White, a professor at the

The world has crossed over to a new nuclear era, where a fateful error -- rather than intentional aggression -- is the most likely catalyst to nuclear catastrophe.　American leaders have been warned more than once of incoming Russian missiles -- in each case, it was a false alarm resulting from technical or human error. Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin was mistakenly alerted to a possible US missile strike after the launch of a Norwegian scientific rocket.After every incident, we deceive ou

Brent crude traded near $70 a barrel as the specter of expanding U.S. supply was weighed against Wall Street banks’ growing faith in a price rally.The benchmark grade is on course to end the week lower, after being whipsawed by concern about rising American production and optimism over rosy outlooks painted by forecasters including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Brent has held at these levels since mid-January, after being driven higher by shrinking U.S. stockpiles and a weaker dollar earlier in the ye

Have you ever had the wild thought that if you shut your eyes really tight and then opened them again, you’d wake up and find that you were a kid again, and that your whole adult life had been one long dream? No more backaches, no more mortgage payments, just Saturday morning cartoons and mom and dad waiting for you with a bowl of your favorite breakfast cereal.　This fantasy is kind of like “MAGA.” Short for “make America great again,” the slogan of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, tha

A New York Times story about a company, Devumi, that has sold more than 200 million fake followers to second-tier celebrities and “influencers,” has made a big splash; New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has tweeted that his office has opened an investigation into Devumi‘s “impersonation and deception.” But the firm is just a tiny outfit with an office above a Mexican restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida. What really needs to be investigated is to what extent social networks’ user base

The re-election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in October was welcomed warmly by stock market investors. The reappointment of Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda to another five-year term starting this April would also be viewed as a reassuring sign of policy continuity.The Japanese tradition of naming economic expansions after Shinto deities dates back to the 1950s. A fitting name for the current period of growth, already the second longest since the war, might be the “Amaterasu boom,” a reference

Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. said they plan to collaborate on a way to offer health-care services to their US employees.The three companies said they plan to set up a new independent company "that is free from profit-making incentives and constraints," according to a statement on Tuesday. The initial focus will be on technology solutions to provide health care "at a reasonable cost." This combination of photos from left shows Warren Buffett on Sept. 19, 2017,

California Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, has introduced a bill that could significantly ease the state’s urban housing crisis.Wiener’s bill would essentially prohibit cities from acting like suburbs, forcing them to allow builders to line their wide boulevards with medium-rise apartment buildings. SB 827 would forbid cities from imposing controls such as density and parking requirements on new residential construction within 805 meters of a major transit station or 400 meters from

If you want to gauge how Chinese consumers are reshaping the world, look at how many of them are leaving China.　For vacation, that is. Outbound Chinese tourism has enjoyed explosive growth over the past decade and there’s plenty more where that came from: only 5 percent of the Middle Kingdom’s citizens hold a passport, compared with 40 percent in the US. That’s a lot of ground to make up and suggests this boom has some staying power.　Investors would do well to focus on the beneficiaries, and not

The washing machine is the unsung hero of the feminist revolution. There’s a lively argument that the washing machine is actually what enabled the average woman to work outside the home. When finally adopted, it certainly liberated women from the brutal labor involved in doing laundry with lye and a washboard. (Now we complain about the comparative delights of folding the stuff!)These days, according to the US census, more than 85 percent of American households have a washing machine. Almost all

For the first time in a year, significant new information has emerged linking the 2016 US Democratic National Committee security breach to Russia. A newspaper in the Netherlands reports that US authorities received evidence of the hack from the Dutch intelligence service, which had penetrated the Russian hackers. The report partly explains the US intelligence community‘s certainty about what happened to the DNC and its reluctance to tell the public more. But it also raises new questions.The stor

Donald Trump’s administration last week announced new tariffs on solar panels and washing machines. It has hinted at more to come. The rationale for these measures is that they’ll reduce American trade deficits -- in particular, the widening deficit with China -- and thus benefit the US economy. Rather than take Washington’s assumptions at face value, however, we must consider how protectionism affects capital flows.　Policymakers largely ignore the indirect impact of trade intervention on capita