Conservative Republicans in our nation’s capital have managed to accomplish something they only dreamed of when Tea Partiers streamed into Congress at the start of 2011. They’ve basically shut down Congress. Their refusal to compromise is working just as they hoped: No jobs agenda. No budget. No grand bargain on the deficit. No background checks on guns. Nothing on climate change. No tax reform. No hike in the minimum wage. Nothing so far on immigration reform.It’s as if an entire branch of the

Should the U.S. be taking economic lessons from India? Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich thinks so. Perhaps not from India as a whole, but at least from the booming western state of Gujarat, which has enjoyed 10 percent-plus growth under its controversial chief minister, Narendra Modi. “If we had Gujarat’s growth rates over the last 10 years,” Gingrich told Modi in a recent Skype video conversation, “we would have been a lot healthier country than we are right now.” While the “Gujarat model” ha

PARIS ― Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor on the lam for having dumped some classified documents on the desk of a British reporter, says that he doesn’t consider himself a hero, but his girlfriend’s blog paints a different picture, with delusions of grandeur dating back more than three months. If only the NSA’s PRISM Program was as significant as their sense of self-importance.Snowden’s Hawaii-based dancer-girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, repeatedly refers to herself as a

According to the literary scholar Philippe Lejeune, autobiographical texts rest on the assumption “that there is identity of name between the author (such as he figures, by his name, on the cover), the narrator of the story, and the character who is being talked about.” This constitutes what one could call “the basic grammar” of the genre of autobiography, or, as Lejeune puts it, the “autobiographical pact” established among narrator and reader. Solid as this definition may seem, several critics

For so many years, Iran has been a popular neighbor among most Arab states, largely because of its unremitting hostility toward Israel and the West.But now, the tables have turned, and its past behavior counts for nothing. Iran has lost the friendship and support of almost every Arab and Muslim state, leaving it as one the least liked nations in the world. Its only true competitor for that title right now seems to be North Korea.Paradoxically, it would seem, while Iran’s popularity has plummeted

WASHINGTON ― Journalists have a professional commitment to the idea that more debate is better, so we instinctively side with leakers. But I’m skeptical about some of the claims of Edward Snowden, the young NSA contractor who leaked secrets about that agency’s surveillance programs to The Washington Post and the Guardian. Snowden has described his actions in idealistic terms. “I’m willing to sacrifice ... because I can’t in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet f

Prosecutors missed another important opportunity to firmly establish their political independence when they refrained from detaining former spymaster Won Sei-hoon after charging him with intervening in the December presidential election. Wrapping up their two-month investigation, prosecutors concluded that Won had orchestrated the National Intelligence Service’s systematic and extensive involvement in domestic politics since January 2012.Under his instructions, they said, a dozen or so NIS agent

Tracing the ill-gotten hidden wealth of former President Chun Doo-hwan and forcing him to pay his massive court-ordered fines has emerged as a hot political issue since President Park Geun-hye pledged to tackle the problem.Chun, who took power in 1980 through a military coup, accumulated wealth illegally during his seven-year rule by taking bribes from big business groups. In 1997, he was ordered by the Supreme Court to pay 220 billion won ($193 million) in fines. But he has thus far paid only a

Obstetric fistula, an abdominal injury that occurs in unattended childbirth and causes incontinence, is among the most intractable challenges of extreme poverty. In Tanzania, however, a pilot program that relies on mobile-phone communication has brought fistula sufferers in remote areas to a central hospital for reparative surgery. This strategy, if duplicated elsewhere, could offer hope of a new life for many of the estimated 2 million women afflicted with fistula worldwide. A fistula is a hole

In the latest twist to the nuclear standoff between North Korea and the international community, the two Koreas have held working-level talks between the two governments, and analysts are debating the prospects for any further talks leading to improved inter-Korean relations. However, although inter-Korean dialogue is certainly preferable to a state of extreme nuclear tension, convincing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions likely will take more than inter-Korean trust. Key to Pyongyang’s

Teddy Roosevelt once said “the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” Recent research suggests he may have been more right than he knew: Life’s “best prize” might actually extend life itself. Our common perception is that retirement is a time when we can relax and take better care of ourselves after stressful careers. But what if work itself is beneficial to our health, as several recent studies suggest? One of them, by Jennifer Montez of Harvard Unive

In the fall of 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama signed a sweeping package of patent reforms into law. He promised they would improve patent quality, reduce excessive litigation, encourage innovation and create jobs. Last week, the president unveiled another round of sweeping patent reforms. He promised they would improve patent quality, reduce excessive litigation, encourage innovation and … you get the idea. Obviously, the president’s first attempt didn’t work. His latest legislative proposals

People can run into two problems when they need to find a taxi. The first is that they don’t know whether a taxi will be available. The second is that they don’t know when a taxi will be available. Uber Technologies Inc., a San Francisco-based company, was set up to solve both problems. You can download its application, and it will find out where you are and come pick you up. It will also tell you when it is coming. In fact, the app comes with a screen that shows exactly where the vehicle is, so

BRASILIA ― The 1945 United Nations Charter represented a historic breakthrough in the pursuit of peace on a multilateral basis. At the end of a global war that claimed more than 50 million lives, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the world’s two major powers. The U.N. Charter, initially negotiated by the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom during World War II, established a Security Council containing five permanent members, including France and the Republic of China.A

NEW YORK ― The “branding” of modern central banking started in the United States in the early 1980s under then-Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker. Facing worrisomely high and debilitating inflation, Volcker declared war against it ― and won. In delivering secular disinflation, he did more than change expectations and economic behavior. He also greatly enhanced the Fed’s standing among the general public, in financial markets, and in policy circles.Volcker’s victory was institutionalized

The Syrian war is spreading fast, engulfing all of its neighbors and risking even larger conflicts, while leaving the pregnant question: What’s to be done before the region explodes?First the facts: Firefights across the Iraqi border have become quite common, and many analysts believe the Sunni-Shiite violence now engulfing Iraq exploded after Iraq’s Sunnis watched their brethren next door stand up to Assad, an Alawite-Shiite. Just after the latest wave of attacks that killed at least 24 people,

ISTANBUL ― Turkey’s economy has been booming for a decade, earning praise not only from financial markets, but also from development economists like Jeffrey Sachs. Why, then, have peaceful demonstrations that began in Istanbul’s landmark Taksim Square turned into a nationwide protest movement, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in opposition to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government?Sachs, and others, have rightly acknowledged and praised the Erdogan government

The “tea party” is back and is brewing trouble for the Republican establishment.After the GOP debacle in the 2012 election, when Republicans not only failed to win the presidency but blew a chance to take over the Senate, party leaders paused to consider what had gone wrong.The Republican National Committee issued a scathing report warning that the party was in “an ideological cul-de-sac” and resolved to act friendlier toward women, minorities and low-income voters. Strategist Karl Rove said the

PARIS ― To believe the media narrative, the “Arab Spring” has arrived in yet another Islamic nation ― Turkey this time ― snowballing at record speed from a single protest over the fate of trees under an urban-development plan. This simplistic explanation might have more merit if Turkey wasn’t the staging ground for Western interests in Syria.Spontaneous, organic protest movements have certain characteristics. They’re relatively small and easily contained. Without being fueled deliberately, they

Economic forecasters exist to make astrologers look good. But the recent jubilance is enough to make even weather forecasters blush.“The economy is going gangbusters! Just look at consumer spending!”“Look at home prices! Look at the bull market!”Please.I can understand the jubilation in the narrow sense that we’ve been down so long, everything looks up. Plus, economists who are paid by Wall Street or corporations tend to cheerlead because they believe that if consumers and businesses think the f