August 29, 2017 — Americans have under-estimated the nuclear threat from North Korea and misunderstood what policies would reduce it. At the same time they have over-estimated the importance of bilateral trade deficits with China and misunderstood what policies would reduce them. Now these two different issues intersect.
My preceding post discussed the Chinese trade aspect of the problem. Here I review the geo-politics and history of the North Korea nuclear problem.
(August 27, 2017) — Donald Trump has threatened new trade barriers against China while simultaneously depending on Beijing’s help to rein in North Korea’s alarming nuclear weapons program. These two aspects of US policy toward China are at odds.
July 26, 2017 — Why do Republican politicians seem unable to come together on a bill to “repeal and replace” the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare? After all, they have spent 7 years with that as their single-minded goal, they campaigned on it in the 2016 presidential election, and they now control all branches of government.