Showing 1 - 10 of 70
Humanity's alignment problem
News, Antara Haldar, Published on 06/01/2026
» It's lunchtime on top of the world again. Time's annual "Person of the Year" issue released two weeks ago has revived the iconic Depression-era photograph of steelworkers casually lunching on a beam suspended over Manhattan. With the city rising beneath them, the image portrays risk as normalised, even glamourised.
Exit the Snake, enter the Horse
News, Curtis S Chin and Jose B Collazo, Published on 30/12/2025
» As we bid farewell to 2025, and welcome 2026 -- and soon, the lunar Year of the Horse -- we once again highlight the winners and losers of the year gone by in Asia.
Baht headache
Oped, Postbag, Published on 18/12/2025
» Re: "BoT cracks down on surging baht", (Business, Dec 17). While the baht's currency strength is an ever-more concerning issue, as pointed out numerous times, what is rarely mentioned is the likely excess Thai foreign reserves, nearing an astonishing US$270 billion.
Jimmy Lai, the HK tycoon who stood up to China
News, James Pomfret & Jessie Pang, Published on 17/12/2025
» Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media mogul and China critic, was found guilty on Monday on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of sedition under a China-imposed national security law that could see him jailed for life.
Dispel steel bar doubts
Oped, Editorial, Published on 27/10/2025
» The decision by the Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) to release 40,000 deformed steel bars, confiscated in the wake of the State Audit Office (SAO) collapse, has stirred controversy. The move came only shortly after the new government took shape, raising questions over timing and transparency.
Dereliction of duty not OK
Oped, Editorial, Published on 12/04/2025
» Two weeks after an earthquake in Myanmar sent shockwaves through Bangkok, an executive from the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has broken his silence and explained just how much the office knows about the contractor of its 2.1-billion-baht building that collapsed into rubble.
Leave no stone unturned in graft probes
Oped, Chairith Yonpiam, Published on 05/04/2025
» The collapse of the State Audit Office's (SAO) under-construction building last week following a powerful quake in Myanmar set a world record -- but not in a way that Thai people would take pride in.
Why China's marriage crisis really matters
Oped, Yi Fuxian, Published on 04/04/2025
» New marriages in China reportedly plummeted by one-fifth last year, implying that the official number of births will likely fall from 9.54 million in 2024 to 7.3- 7.8 million in 2025. Thus, while China represents 17.2% of the global population, it will account for less than 6% of births -- comparable to Nigeria.
Trump adds to growing doubts at climate talks
News, Jennifer A Dlouhy, Published on 09/11/2024
» The election of Donald Trump -- and his vow to once again undertake a US retreat from international climate diplomacy -- poses a decisive threat to the fight against global warming as the window for meaningful action closes.
Beyond the hype: Gauging AI's true economic impact
Oped, Daron Acemoglu, Published on 30/05/2024
» According to tech leaders and many pundits and academics, artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform the world as we know it through unprecedented productivity gains. While some believe that machines soon will do everything humans can do, ushering in a new age of boundless prosperity, other predictions are at least more grounded. For example, Goldman Sachs predicts that generative AI will boost global GDP by 7% over the next decade, and the McKinsey Global Institute anticipates that the annual GDP growth rate could increase by 3-4 percentage points between now and 2040. For its part, The Economist expects that AI will create a blue-collar bonanza.