Opinion

• And the Nobel Peace Prize Goes to … the Opposite of Trump
  The world is watching a split screen: In one panel, humanity sees jurists such as Navi Pillay of South Africa, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize for her decades of struggling for international law, in roles such as high commissioner for human rights at the United Nations, judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and president of the tribunal adjudicating the atrocities in Rwanda.
• Trump's Economy Isn't Giving Men or Native-Born Americans an Edge
  When Vice President JD Vance hits the road to drum up support for Republican candidates in next month’s midterm elections, his stump speeches often include the line that the Trump administration has “created 1 million new jobs,” of which “100%” have gone to US citizens. Dig into those numbers, and one gets a sense of why the GOP’s economic message is falling flat.
• If Water Is the New Gold, We’d Better Price It Right
  If America sold tap water the way it sells, say, eggs or gasoline, with the price right there in your face every time you consume it, then our national argument about inflation might have looked much different over the past decade.
• Not Even Tom Cruise Could Save ‘Digger’
  Continuing a concerning trend for Warner Bros. in 2026, its latest release is buried in a financial hole no film can escape. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger arrived over the weekend and grossed a measly $8 million domestically against a nine-figure production budget, with the Wrap reporting that the movie is expected to lose $250 million — about $100 million more than was previously projected.
• What Did the EU’s €800 Billion of Covid Borrowing Accomplish?
  Six years ago, the European Union’s ambitious €800 billion post-Covid recovery program was hailed by some as the bloc’s “Hamiltonian moment.” As the money runs out, a humbler verdict makes more sense.
• Europe’s Billionaires Are Overshadowed By AI’s Gilded Age
  Au revoir, Bernard Arnault. The French luxury billionaire recently fell out of Bloomberg’s ranking of the world’s top 10 richest people, the predictable consequence of a 40% price drop in the shares of LMVH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE this year. Nobody will shed a tear; he’s still worth $131.2 billion. But as the last remaining European on a list now exclusively occupied by Americans, it feels like the start of a new era.
• Is Fine Dining Dead? That’s the Wrong Question
  Bruno Verjus, the restaurant-critic-turned-chef, reignited an old debate in July when he announced he was shutting down Table, his two-Michelin-starred Paris restaurant. His provocation: “Fine dining is dead.” It was too exclusive. Too expensive. Too isolated from the realities of a world of pocketbook-conscious ordinary people. He wasn’t saying anything original.
• Starbucks Should Avoid a Grande-Sized Gamble on Chipotle
  Starbucks Corp. has reportedly explored a takeover of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. in what would be the biggest restaurant deal of all time. It’s unclear whether Starbucks is still pursuing a tie-up, or if it has dropped the idea. It should do the latter and avoid creating a slop bowl with a side of cold brew.
• Iger and Chapek’s Feud Is Embarrassing Disney — and Them
  Bob Chapek and Bob Iger may no longer run Walt Disney Co., but lately the two former CEOs have been doing the company a favor.
• US Taxes Really Are Too Low
• US Bases Overseas Are Becoming Prime Targets
  The Pentagon’s abrupt withdrawal of a dozen long-range B-1 bombers from a British airbase this week raises a host of troubling questions. Vice President J.D. Vance said the move was made “out of an abundance of caution” after US and British officials reportedly received warnings of a potential drone attack ordered by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
• Europe Has Got Its Made-in-China Policy Wrong
  If the definition of madness is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result, what are we to make of the latest broadsides in the trade war brewing between the European Union and China?
• Kansas Deserves More of Democrats’ Midterm Money. Yes, Kansas
  Yes, Democrats have a shot in Kansas.
• How Not to Tame an Out-of-Control World
  A clever interviewer recently asked me which piece of music I would choose to sum up our times. I am afraid I opted for the clichéd answer of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, even though Wagner’s genius did not extend to summing things up. As I left the interview a better answer came to mind.
• What’s in Russian Permafrost May Be Scarier Than Plague
  After the Covid pandemic, we’re all a little jumpy when it comes to new disease outbreaks. So it’s understandable that the death of a lab technician working at a plague research institute in Siberia has put everyone on high alert. But while there’s still much we don’t know about that case, there is another health threat brewing in Russia that deserves more attention and alarm.
• The Next AI Race Exposes the Limits of Language
  More than 50 years after her death, Helen Keller still turns up in artificial intelligence debates. The communication breakthroughs of the American writer, who was deaf and blind, are often cited as evidence that language is the best path to creating machines that are as intelligent as humans.
• The AI Giants Are Facing a Severe Case of Financial Indigestion
  Amid heated discussion of the astonishing (and also rather worrying) capabilities of artificial intelligence, investors are realizing that the underlying computing and energy infrastructure relied upon by OpenAI, Anthropic PBC and their ilk is much harder to construct than a chatbot prompt.
• Healthcare’s Risk to the Economy Is Now Too Big to Ignore
  Consumer confidence is collapsing, hiring is weak and the housing market is largely frozen. All of which serves to underscore that the US economy is only holding up because of the boom in artificial intelligence and an aging population spending ever more on healthcare. Although the former seems to garner all the attention these days, the latter is becoming a rising source of vulnerability. The risk is that unsustainable federal budget deficits will force a reckoning, with the government throttli
• The World Isn’t Ready for a Japan With Interest
  Two years ago, when Japan embarked on its path toward policy normalization, I asked whether the country was ready for a “world with interest.” It was a question many were asking as the Asian nation rediscovered inflation and non-zero interest rates after decades without either.