Saving Europe by Destroying It From Within

Date: 15-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Euroskeptics may bolster the bloc by shifting focus away from institutions and onto the needs of people.

Brussels anticipates European Parliament elections in May with a growing sense of dread. Anti-European Union parties could capture one-third of the seats in the pan-Continental legislature, positioning them to block most important EU projects.

A much-discussed new report from the pro-EU European Council on Foreign Relations sums up the problem from this perspective right in its title: “How Anti-Europeans Plan to Wreck Europe and What Can Be Done to Stop It.”

Here’s how to keep these political movements from wrecking Europe: Don’t try to stop them at all.

There’s no denying the shake-up awaiting Brussels if unconventional parties fare as well as expected in the May vote. Until now the chief characteristic of both the European Parliament and the elections that select its members has been profound boringness.

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If devalue-and-inflate is Britain’s best post-EU plan, Brexit is doomed.

Date: 14-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By The Editorial Board
Subject: Brexiteers for Argentina

Leaving the European Union will leave the United Kingdom better off only if the country makes itself more competitive by reducing taxes, trade barriers and regulatory burdens. But recent comments from leading Brexiteers show London’s anti-EU faction is thinking a lot smaller.

“Analysts predict that in the event of no deal, sterling could fall by over 20 per cent,” former Minister for Leaving the EU David Davis wrote Monday in the Times of London. “Is this such a bad thing? Our goods will become 20 per cent more competitive on the global market and our EU competitors’ goods would be less competitive.”

Not even close. This is an easy proposition to test, since the pound already has declined nearly 20% since the end of 2015 amid Brexit uncertainty. Britain is still waiting for the promised export boost.

As Brexit Deadline Nears, EU Loses Confidence in May

Date: 13-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Brussels wonders whether U.K. prime minister can deliver any Brexit deal

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May departs number 10 Downing Street on Wednesday.

Six weeks from Britain’s planned exit from the European Union, the bloc’s governments are preparing to make further concessions to try to help British Prime Minister Theresa May win approval for her Brexit deal in Parliament.

But as the clock ticks down, they are still waiting for a signal from Mrs. May about how to move and are losing confidence in her capacity to deliver a majority for any agreement, increasing the chances of a no-deal exit that neither side wants.

One thing European officials say is now certain, although the British side hasn’t admitted it: If there is a deal, the U.K.’s scheduled departure on March 29 will have to be delayed.

Mrs. May is seeking legal guarantees that an arrangement aimed at avoiding the emergence of a physical border in Ireland—ironically a concession by Brussels extracted by British negotiators—won’t be used to trap the U.K. permanently into a customs union with the EU, denying Britain an independent trade policy.

taly’s Salvini Rises, With Fiery Words and Pragmatic Decisions

Date: 13-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal

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Interior minister, head of the ruling League party, has become a central figure in efforts to build a pan-European alliance of nationalists and nativists

PIANELLA, Italy—Far-right lnterior Minister Matteo Salvini strolled through a crowd of supporters in the main square of this southern Abruzzo town. Leaping on stage to campaign for regional elections, Mr. Salvini took aim at prosecutors who have charged him with kidnapping 177 African migrants last year after he refused to let them disembark from a rescue ship.

“They will have to put me on trial for the next 20 years, because I’ll go on blocking the migrants ships,” Mr. Salvini told the cheering crowd last week. “If they think they are scaring somebody, they chose the wrong person.”

In practice, though, Mr. Salvini is working to preserve his immunity against prosecution as a member of Italy’s Senate. His electioneering effort worked. On Sunday, a far-right candidate for governor backed by Mr. Salvini’s League party won the Abruzzo election.

Mr. Salvini is one of the fastest-rising politicians in a major European Union country. He has turned the League, a moribund regional movement in Italy’s north, into the nation’s most popular political force. His combative anti-immigration rhetoric and down-to-earth persona on social media have tapped anger at Italy’s aloof, ineffectual political establishment in swaths of Italian society.

Incredible Shrinking Europe

Date: 12-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Walter Russell Mead

The Continent’s grand unity project is failing, and its global influence is fading.

Last week offered fresh evidence that the most consequential historical shift of the last 100 years continues: the decline of Europe as a force in world affairs. As Deutsche Bank warned of a German recession, the European Commission cut the 2019 eurozone growth forecast from an already anemic 1.9% to 1.3%. Economic output in the eurozone was lower in 2017 than it was in 2009; over that same period, gross domestic product grew 139% in China, 96% in India, and 34% in the U.S., according to the World Bank.

As its economy lags behind, Europe is becoming more divided politically. Brexit negotiations have inflamed tempers on both sides of the English Channel; Central European countries like Hungary and Poland are alienated from the West; much of Southern Europe remains bitter about the aftermath of the euro crisis; and anti-EU political parties continue to gain support across the bloc. A recent report from the European Council on Foreign Relations projects that anti-EU parties from the right and left are on course to control enough seats in the next European Parliament that they will be able to disrupt the EU and weaken it further. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The EU was founded to stop Europe’s decline, not reflect it.

Europe’s Biggest Job Opening Muddled by Politics

Date: 11-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal

At least five unofficial candidates are in the running to succeed Draghi as the head of the ECB

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s nonrenewable term ends in October.

FRANKFURT—Europe’s faltering economy and fractious politics are complicating the region’s biggest personnel question in years: Who will replace Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank?

Mr. Draghi, who previously ran Italy’s central bank, emerged as the dominant force in the European economy and financial markets during his seven-plus years as ECB head, holding the currency zone together by breaking taboos, including with the launch of a massive bond-buying program.

It’s Time to Fire Your Doctor

Date: 11-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Andy Kessler

Medical tech allows us to monitor health, get advice and seek care remotely and cheaply.

Barack Obama famously and falsely said, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.” But . . . what if you don’t like your doctor?

Let’s say you, like me, are one of the 20 million Americans who work for themselves—no boss, but also no corporate-tax deduction for health insurance. The smart move is to get a high-deductible insurance plan. Now it suddenly matters what doctors charge: $500 to take your blood pressure and bang your knee with a rubber hammer, $1,200 for a blood test that uses pennies worth of chemicals to tell you your hemoglobin levels are fine. Plus four months to get an appointment, and then the doctor asks you to fax an authorization. What? It’s 2019. It’s time to fire your doctor.

Like roughly half of American adults, I’m borderline: hypertensive, high cholesterol, though only “pre”-diabetic. A streak of misdiagnoses has led me and many others to take doctoring into our own hands. I do an annual blood test for $199 through WellnessFX and get results on a smartphone app. A Bluetooth-connected cuff from Omron Healthcare tracks my blood pressure and even notes atrial fibrillation or irregular heartbeat. A Fitbit scale tracks my weight. Beautyrest Sleeptracker tells me my REM sleep duration. My Apple Watch charts my resting pulse and does a simple electrocardiogram. The more data, the better.

The Current State of AI Adoption

Date: 10-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Irving Wladawsky-Berger

Artificial Intelligence is seemingly everywhere. In the past few years, the necessary ingredients have finally come together to propel AI beyond early adopters to a broader marketplace: powerful, inexpensive computer technologies; advanced algorithms; and huge amounts of data on almost any subject. Newspapers and magazines are full of articles about the latest advances in machine learning and related AI technologies.

Two recent reports concluded that, over the next few decades, AI will be the biggest commercial opportunity for companies and nations. AI advances have the potential to increase global GDP by up to 14% between now and 2030, the equivalent of an additional $14 to 15 trillion contribution to the world’s economy, and an annual average contribution to productivity growth of about 1.2 percent.

Over time, AI could become a transformative, general purpose technology like the steam engine, electricity, and the internet. AI marketplace adoption will likely follow a typical S curve pattern with a relatively slow start in the early years, followed by a steep acceleration as the technology matures and firms learn how to best leverage AI for business value.

Where Robots Will Soon Rule

Date: 09-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Christopher Mims

Automation might not mean lower employment overall, but it can still take away jobs as it notches gains in productivity

Right in the center of Florida is a metro area that’s home to more than 600,000 people, along with some of the most technologically sophisticated distribution centers in the country.

In and around the city of Lakeland, you’ll find operations from Amazon, DHL (for Ikea), Walmart , Rooms to Go, Medline and Publix, along with a huge Geico call center, the world’s largest wine-and-spirits distribution warehouse and local factories that produce natural and artificial flavors and, of all things, glitter.

Can Trump Handle a Foreign Crisis?

Date: 08-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Peggy Noonan

He’ll face one eventually, and there’s good reason to worry the administration will be unprepared.

Someday this White House will face a sudden, immediate and severe foreign-policy crisis. It’s almost a miracle it hasn’t happened already. George W. Bush had 9/11 less than eight months into his tenure; John F. Kennedy had the Bay of Pigs three months into his presidency and the Cuban missile crisis the following year. In two years Donald Trump has faced some turbulence, but not a full-fledged crisis.

Such good fortune won’t continue forever. I sometimes ask past and present officials of this administration their thoughts on a crisis, and how the White House would handle one. They are concerned.