Turmoil at Barnes & Noble Inc., where Chief Executive Officer William Lynch resigned last week after the company posted an unexpectedly large loss in the quarter ended April 30, has people in the publishing industry worried. “We’re all forced to ask: What would the book discovery environment look like without Barnes & Noble?” writes Rich Fahle, a former Borders executive who runs a marketing agency for authors. The question zeroes in on a growing problem for the U.S. book industry. Although read

Two years into its transition from dictatorship to democracy, Myanmar is finding out how dangerous freedom can be. Since June 2012, when fighting broke out between Buddhists and Muslims in western Arakan state, attacks against Myanmar’s tiny Muslim minority have spread throughout the country. More than 200 people have been killed in Buddhist-Muslim riots, and more than 150,000 rendered homeless ― most of them Muslims. Many Burmese think that former regime figures are stoking the attacks, hoping

WASHINGTON ― Hisham Melhem, a prominent Lebanese journalist, recalls an emotional visit to the Great Mosque of Cordoba in southern Spain last May. With tears in his eyes, he found himself wondering how the Arab Muslim genius of a thousand years ago had veered in modern times toward such chaos and repression. Melhem later wrote a column for the Beirut daily An Nahar describing his visit to the Andalusia region, “roaming as if ... in a dream,” touching the pillars of the mosque in Cordoba and othe

This Ramadan I’m praying for a miracle. Islam’s holy month begins this week, and millions of Muslims everywhere are fasting, reflecting and asking God to answer prayers. Like millions of American Muslims, I will be thinking about the cycle of violence that appears to have taken on a life of its own, and I worry that cycle is unstoppable.The so-called Arab Spring was thought to mean a new beginning; but the wave of change did not bring freedom and prosperity to the region. Instead two years into

The search for lessons from lost economic decades has led from Japan to the U.S. to Europe. Now the spotlight turns to Thailand. This may strike some as odd, considering Thailand’s 5.3 percent growth, its young and expanding population, and the surprising level of political stability in Bangkok. In her two years leading Thailand’s 68 million people, Yingluck Shinawatra has somehow managed to tamp down the virtual civil war that led to the ouster of her prime minister brother in 2006. Look closer

LONDON ― The events that led Egypt’s military to remove President Mohammed Morsi confronted the army with a simple choice: intervention or chaos. Seventeen million people in the street is not the same thing as an election. But it is an awesome manifestation of people power.Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood was unable to shift from being an opposition movement to being a governing party. Of course, governments govern badly or well or averagely. But this is different. Egypt’s economy is tanking. Ordinary

The 19 firefighters who died battling a huge wildfire near Prescott, Ariz., presumably were motivated by something other than rational self-interest. Like the first responders to 9/11 and other emergencies, and members of the armed forces, those firefighters put themselves in harm’s way (or chose a job that did so) because they wanted to serve.Economics, and much of public policy and political strategy, assume that people are motivated by self-interest, that the definition of acting rationally i

In January, Egyptian newspapers reported that the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani, had traveled to Cairo that month to meet with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s aides about setting up a spy service that would answer to Iran and circumvent the Egyptian military. Were the Egyptian people really going to sit back and allow Iran to take over their country?Imagine a conflict in which American, Egyptian and Israeli intelligence are all on the same side as the Egyptian people, drai

A committee deliberating on reform of the National Pension Scheme has proposed a substantial increase in contributions to make the state-run program more sustainable.The committee stopped short of suggesting a specific figure due to differences among its members. But a majority of them reportedly favored a plan to gradually raise the contribution rate from the current 9 percent to 13-14 percent.The government has refrained from commenting on the committee’s proposal, given the public outcry it h

Public hospitals are mostly in chronic deficit. Each year, they look to the government for subsidies to cover part of their losses. Despite their poor financial state, these hospitals, however, have provided very generous benefits to their employees.According to news reports, the 11 general hospitals affiliated with national universities and the 34 local hospitals operated by provincial governments have been offering big discounts on the medical bills of their employees and their family members.

Edward Snowden has wrought more damage on the United States than any private individual in recent memory.It’s not just the theft and publication of classified material. That was bad enough because those disclosures make the U.S. look hypocritical and deceitful. The revelations are infuriating America’s allies and rivals alike. But the 30-year-old’s fervid attempts to find asylum are also setting off escalating rounds of anger and recrimination ― all of that aimed at Washington, too.Just one exam

WASHINGTON ― The White House rationalized last week’s military coup in Egypt as providing the opportunity for a “do-over,” and that’s a comforting idea in more ways than one. But political life doesn’t come with an eraser to neatly remove mistakes and start over ― especially in the explosive Middle East. Egypt did need a new start. President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government had bungled so badly that Egypt was in the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as I described it a mon

One of the most fruitful diplomatic and socio-economic relationships over the past decade must surely be that between China and countries in Southeast Asia, though not without the occasional hiccup.The ASEAN member states have enjoyed double-digit growth in their trade with the world’s most populous nation in recent years and it reached a record high of $400.9 billion last year.Now the third biggest trading partner with China, ASEAN is expected to become the No. 1 trading partner in the next two

Asia’s longest-serving prime minister Hun Sen is seeking to build a political dynasty, analysts say, with both his son and son-in-law running in Cambodia’s upcoming general elections on July 28. At the same time, at least five other senior members of his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) also have their sons contesting the election.The CPP won 90 of 123 National Assembly seats in the last election in 2008. This time, while the party is certain of winning, it is also fearful of surprises and

The U.S. is about to reimpose tariffs on Bangladesh in response to the country’s failure to improve safety in its factories. The European Union has threatened to follow the U.S.’s lead ― a move that would hit Bangladesh much harder. This punitive strategy is understandable, but there’s a better way to advance a worthy cause. More than 1,000 people died when a garment factory near Dhaka collapsed in April; a few months before, a factory fire killed more than 100. Safety standards in Bangladeshi f

In the fall of 2010, as deputy head of China investment banking at UBS AG, I spoke to a group of wealthy investors in Beijing about the outlook for Chinese stocks. A rumpled, 50-something man from Hangzhou named Wang Zhigang pulled me aside afterward and asked for my advice about investing. Until then, he had made his money through curbside lending, not stocks. But, he lamented, his returns had dropped from more than 30 percent a year to a mere 23 percent. He worried about his personal fortune,

Despite the hoopla over dysfunction in Washington, the government can still do useful things. To prove it, the Food and Drug Administration should move aggressively to implement and then strengthen its proposed cancer warnings about tanning beds. A stunning 20 million to 30 million Americans each year use tanning beds. Use is particularly concentrated among young white women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that about 30 percent of white women between the ages of 18 and

State-owned enterprises and other public organizations take up a large portion of the Korean economy. The combined budget of these 295 entities is 575 trillion won this year, far larger than the central government’s budget of about 350 trillion won.These institutions exist to provide a wide array of indispensible public services, but they do not enjoy a high reputation among the public due to their rapidly growing debt and lax management practices. Last year, their cumulative debt reached 493.4

The crash of Asiana Airlines’ Boeing 777 jet at San Francisco International Airport is a wake-up call for the Korean aviation industry, which enjoys a good global reputation for safety.In the mid-1990s, Korea’s two flag carriers ― Asiana and its bigger rival Korean Air ― suffered a string of fatal incidents, which led to a downgrading of the nation’s aviation safety rating in 1999.The humiliation prompted the Seoul government to undertake a comprehensive reform of its aviation regulatory system.

What is the point of immigration reform? It is not about securing the political future of one political party or the other. Nor is the point to supply business with an abundance of cheap labor. And contrary to much of what we’ve heard in recent weeks, the primary goal is not to create a border so secure it would make Kim Jong-un proud. Immigration reform is primarily about respect ― for the dignity of human beings and for the rule of law. Reform should legalize work, reduce incentives for illega