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Robert J. samuelson

Article
In 1995, the largest five firms by market “capitalization” (the value of a company’s shares) were old-line businesses: Exxon, AT&T, Coca Cola, General Electric and Merck. By 2015, only Exxon (now Exxon Mobil) remained.

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[OP-ED]: The curse of…

 A persisting puzzle about the U.S. economy is how it can seem both strong and weak. On the one…
Article
There isn’t enough money to satisfy all our demands, even at higher rates of economic growth. There will be conflicts between private and governmental spending; between national and local spending; between health spending and non-health spending; and between spending on the old versus the young. The present is contentious; the future may be worse.
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[OP-ED]: Trump’s great…
Article
La manera en que Yellen maneje estos asuntos moldeará su legado. También podría determinar su futuro inmediato. Su período como presidenta de la Fed caduca a comienzos de 2018. Es difícil imaginar que el presidente Trump la reasigne a esas funciones si no puede guiar a la Fed sorteando los próximos escollos. dataifx.com
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[OP-ED]: Yellen’s gamble
Article
Just whether the persistence of high-cost care reflects good medicine, a deep human craving to cling to life, or both is unclear. But the rhetoric about “end-of-life” care has changed more than the reality. To the question -- Can we die in peace and with dignity? -- the answer is “not yet.”
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[OP-ED]: Can we die in…
Article
The federal budget remains badly out of whack, even though we are near or at “full employment” (June unemployment rate: 4.4 percent). We cannot afford tax cuts; we need tax increases.
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[OP-ED]: Deficits forever?
Article
“Upper-middle-class parents have the means to spend two to three times more time with their preschool children than less affluent parents,” he wrote. He also excoriated “the structural ways the well-educated rig the system” -- mainly restrictive zoning and easier college admissions, including legacy preferences. impakter.com
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[OP-ED]: Who’s hoarding the…
Article
En un mundo ideal, los robots realizarían la mayoría de los trabajos repetitivos y monótonos, mientras que la fuerza de trabajo mejor educada y mejor paga se concentraría en trabajos que no pueden ser realizados por máquinas. Archivo
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[OP-ED]: Why robots won’t…
Article
Trump may believe that trade and environmental issues can be kept separate from geopolitical matters, such as North Korea’s nuclear program. On the contrary, history suggests that trade and geopolitics go hand in hand. EFE
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[OP-ED]: Trump’s trade trap
Article
Not surprisingly, the system has become self-perpetuating. It feeds on mutual recriminations. On this July 4, the Founders -- who had deep disagreements, but compromised -- would doubtlessly disapprove.
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[OP-ED]: Mad at everyone
Article
Economists from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland -- a bank for government central banks -- find that the pass-through from wage increases to price increases has weakened. If this is confirmed and continues, it implies that inflation will remain tame for some time even if the economy continues to grow. EFE
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[OP-ED]: Postponing the…
Article
If companies compete fiercely for scarce employees, workers would benefit. Companies would increase wages and fringe benefits or risk losing their best employees to firms with more generous compensation packages.
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[OP-ED]: Is the labor…
Article
To some extent, the future of America depends on Donald Trump. But it depends even more on how these social and economic trends evolve -- how we cope with them and whether we become a more cohesive society or a more contentious one. EFE
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[OP-ED]: Trump isn’t destiny
Article
Based on present technology and knowledge, we don’t know how to solve global warming. There is no obvious way to eliminate our pervasive dependence on fossil fuels without plunging the world into a prolonged depression and inviting widespread civil strife. 
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[OP-ED]: The messy reality…
Article
The “American economy will need a coordinated response, particularly if the entire financial system suffers a panic or lack of liquidity.” Bankruptcy judges cannot provide this response. It is best left to the Treasury, Federal Reserve and FDIC.
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[OP-ED]: Preparing for the…