East Asia Watch: The Ideological Winds of China

Something is happening in China that I haven’t seen since I first started covering it in 1979, some 35 years ago. President Xi Jinping is either starting or encouraging the start of a Maoist-style ideological campaign against Western-inspired professors, journalists, intellectuals and others who advocate human rights or political pluralism. This is exactly what Mao […]…

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Finding Some Balance in The Debate About Auto Recalls

The New York Times and other media outlets have been pounding the automotive industry for many months and indeed years now, essentially charging that manufacturers are knowingly putting cars on the road with defects that kill people. Or else engaging in criminal behavior to suppress knowledge about problems that arise. But this article in the […]…

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Is A Newly Revived U.S.-Saudi Alliance Changing the World?

I don’t usually venture into the realm of petroleum, but I’ve been to two events recently, one private and one public, that suggest that the entire world order is changing because of the collapse of oil prices. It could be that it is a confluence of factors and that there is no specific collaboration between […]…

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Universities Try to Create More “Spin Outs”

The Wall Street Journal has been doing an excellent job writing about how universities are approaching the subject of technology transfer, a favorite subject of mine. Here is their latest effort, below. My bottom line response is that universities are not organized to create businesses and have the wrong skills sets and the wrong set […]…

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This important, but disappointing, story from the Wall Street Journal

Business U.S. Manufacturing Rebound Lags Behind Work Sent Abroad America Is Getting More Competitive, but Reshoring ‘Not What It’s Cracked Up to Be,’ Study Finds ENLARGE Stanley Black & Decker opened a plant in Charlotte, N.C., a year ago to assemble some power drills and other tools previously made only overseas. But that factory relies […]…

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