Opinion

By Kevin Hyland & Robert D. Marin In 2016, then-Prime Minister Theresa May marked the first anniversary of the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Act with a commentary touting how our research in the UK and Romania had helped uncover “criminal gangs creating twinned towns of...

In the quiet, rhythmic clatter of a rural weaving hamlet in Odisha, time is measured not by the tick of a clock, but by the slow, deliberate intersection of warp and weft. Here, a textile like the Khandua Patta is never merely a piece of...

One major lesson from the political catastrophes of the 20th century appears paradoxical: Democracies sometimes must pursue seemingly undemocratic measures against those who would cynically exploit the system to gain power and then abolish democracy altogether. The problem, of course, is that such measures invite...

The past four months have demonstrated just how volatile oil markets can be. In March, Brent crude climbed above $100 a barrel for the first time in four years, reaching $119 on March 9—its highest level since the 2022 energy crisis—as Iran's closure of the...

Melvin Durai Among the many commendable ways to conserve energy during hot weather, I’d like to applaud Japan’s latest initiative: allowing government workers to wear shorts in the office. I love shorts. Just ask my wife, and she’ll tell you that shorts are my preferred...

Kelly Stonelake When I joined Facebook in 2009, I believed in the mission that founder Mark Zuckerberg espoused: to connect and empower people around the world. We all know how that turned out. Meta, now the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is focused...

Ajit Ranade The Reserve Bank of India’s latest Financial Stability Report is reassuring about the health of banks and non-banking finance companies. It is less reassuring about the financial health of their retail customers. India’s household debt reached 45.5% of GDP by September 2025, close...

Kai Guo Chinese firms have achieved global leadership in industries once assumed to be the preserve of advanced economies: electric vehicles, batteries, industrial robots, solar panels, and AI—to name just a few. The standard explanation for this success is that the Chinese state subsidizes production,...

In the long sweep of history, China’s economic performance over the past 50 years will obviously stand out for the sheer scale and pace of quality-of-life improvements within that country. But China's impact on the rest of the world has still been underappreciated. True, if...

The mysterious Mother Goose’s "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" is a meaningless but catchy English nursery rhyme with ancient Celtic origins. It has entertained children for more than the last three centuries and helps shepherds count their herd. Various historical and linguistic interpretations of the rhyme exist...