Category Archives: Japan

Rethinking Free Trade Agreements in Uncertain Times

Jomo Kwame Sundaram makes the case against the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement that went into effect at the end of 2018, for six of its eleven member countries.

Plastic Watch: Recycling Woes

Although recycling is far from a viable solution to the world’s plastic problem, even these inadequate efforts are lacking, as press accounts from last week of corruption in the UK recycling industry, and Japan’s lag in implementing even the limited plastic reduction measures undertaken elsewhere reveal.

First Set of High Seas Treaty Negotiations Concludes in New York

The first set of of four negotiating sessions to produce a UN treaty on the high seas by 2020 concluded last week in New York; this would extend the existing law of the sea framework beyond each nation’s territorial waters.

CalPERS’ CEO Marcie Frost’s Misrepresentations Regarding Her Education and Work History During and After Her Hiring

Another apparent case of employment fraud at CalPERS, this time with CEO Marcie Frost as the perp.

73 Years After Atomic Bombing of Japan: Nuclear Threat More Immediate Than Ever

In this Real News Network interview, conducted to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the second atomic bomb drop on Nagasaki, historian Peter Kuznick reflects on how the nuclear threat is more immediate now than at any other time since the 1950s.

Wilkerson: Don’t Trust Trump, Bolton to Deliver US-North Korea Peace

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson and Real News Network host Aaron Mate mix it up a bit more than usual on the topic of North Korea.

Some Notes on North Korea

Trying to get past the groupthink on the North Korea summit.

Bill Mitchell: QE Failed in Japan

A short and devastating proof that QE was a bust in Japan.

Hoisted from E-Mail: Brexit, Security, and the UK’s Coming Poodledom

Adding to the tally of how the UK will come out a loser thanks to Brexit.

Japan’s Tight Labor Market Generates Deflation…

Puzzling over Japan’s super low unemployment with continued deflation.

Ilargi: The Curious Case of Missing the Market Boom

A skeptical look at a defense of stock market valuations.

Rumors of Japan’s Imminent Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Why you should not believe media accounts that depict Japan as a basket case in the making.

Who Will Take America’s Place in Asia?

A look at America’s misguided Asia policies.

Can Europe Be Saved from Populism?

Two economists offer recommendations on how to defend Europe from an upsurge of populism. Unfortunately, their ideas give cause for pause.

Wolf Richter: Trump Promises “Fast Trains,” Japan’s Railway Stocks Soar

Trump and Abe send signals over Japan involvement in developing US high-speed rail– good news for stalled California project?