Author: Lance Garrison
Q. What do you call someone who speaks only one language?A. An American.It’s an old joke, but it still works. In fact, I’m monolingual myself, even though my academic work was largely focused on international trade and finance. In my defense, the great bulk of global economic research is published in English; and in general, Americans’ lack of language skills is less important than their insularity, their relative unfamiliarity with what happens and how things work in other nations.Other countries, especially wealthy ones that more or less match the United States in technological development and general ability to get things…
Eleven years. That’s all that’s left until the combined Social Security accounts — the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund — are likely to run out of money and can no longer pay full scheduled benefits, according to the latest report of the Social Security trustees.I don’t worry too much that the checks won’t go out after the projected 2035 exhaustion of the funds, which though legally separate are often regarded as a single pool of money. Current beneficiaries wouldn’t stand for it, and neither would their children. (Even with no fix at all…
To the Editor:Re “Are We Being Too Mindful?” (Science Times, May 7):As someone who has worked in higher education mental health promotion and suicide prevention for more than 30 years, I was pleased to read this article, which discussed the potential drawbacks of too much focus on mindfulness and universal mental health training in schools.It appears that too much focus on feelings without further information about how to handle difficult feelings, and lots of information about symptoms of mental illness without context, might not be helpful to many, and may harm some children.In speaking to teachers and parents about youth…
Love it or hate it, the United States has an imperial presidency, and in his first term, Donald Trump demonstrated a record of using such powers with noted relish on the world stage. As in many areas, he does not have a conventional approach to global relations. But it may turn out that, like Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush before him, Mr. Trump enjoys engagement with foreign policy.His particular style of politics can be provocative, of course, but also effective. Mr. Trump’s approach to America’s place in the world is pragmatic or unpredictable or both, and it could offer…
Electric utilities from Georgia to Wisconsin to Virginia are predicting a dizzying surge in power demand from new industrial facilities, electric vehicles and, most of all, the data centers that store our digital photos and will enable large-language models for artificial intelligence. For months now, they have been signaling that they won’t be able to keep up.To keep the lights on, many utility companies are proposing to build dozens of new power plants that burn natural gas. North Carolina-based Duke Energy alone wants to add 8.9 gigawatts of new gas-fired capacity — more than the entire country added in 2023.…
Someone who is suffering from seasonal allergies may be less able to exercise, more vulnerable to infection, less productive at work (if not actually absent), more likely to require treatment in an emergency room. Seasonal allergies have been linked to an increase in both the prevalence and severity of asthma, which is particularly worrisome for children.None of this is surprising to anyone who’s paying attention to the way the changing climate affects everything nowadays. Wherever you live, even if you aren’t evacuating to avoid a hurricane, or keeping a go bag by the door in case of a wildfire, or…
Not long ago, I took care of a middle-aged man at my hospital who had severe heart failure requiring life support. When he was disconnected from machines after a few days of treatment, he began to display psychotic symptoms, including delusional thinking, tangential speech and paranoia. He had a long history of untreated schizophrenia, I learned, which had estranged him from family members and friends, with whom he had virtually no contact.My patient demanded to leave the hospital. However, sending him home was going to be a problem. He could not take care of himself. There was little chance he…
Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. It’s commencement season, though at least a few ceremonies are being canceled on account of all the protests. If you were giving a graduation address, what would you say?Gail Collins: Well, I’ve given a commencement address or two in my time, but even when things were troubled, I could tell that most of the audience was hoping I’d make them laugh. Just in a way that made them feel it was OK to celebrate their achievements by having a good time with their families and friends.Bret: Last time I spoke to a graduating class, I tried…
If you have eczema, you know what it’s like – that frustrating struggle to catch some ZZZ’s.The problem is at once physical and emotional. “When my eczema is flared, nighttime often fills me with anxiety,” says Nicola Johnston, a digital content creator who lives in Carlisle, England, near the border of Scotland. “I have experienced nights in so much pain that I cannot sleep, and I’ve scratched so hard that my sheets were covered in blood. This is why I’ve worked to establish a good evening routine that will allow me to have a comfortable night’s sleep and get the…
For the final stage of the prosecutor’s case in the People of the State of New York v. Donald Trump, the prosecution is expected to call the witness who has received the lion’s share of attention since the indictment was brought a year ago: Michael Cohen.Before the trial started, some observers thought Mr. Cohen would be an indispensable star witness. They said that without Mr. Cohen, the district attorney could not establish the elements of the charged criminal offenses. But having seen the proof laid out meticulously and methodically by the prosecution these past three weeks, I find myself wondering:…