Commentary

RAIL WORKERS KNOW HOW TO BARGAINThe recent tentative agreement between rail carriers and rai

DESPITE THE HEADLINES and the eulogies, the Interstate Commerce Commission didn't really die on Dec.

"Daddy, what was the government?" ''That was something they had before you were born. Everyb

WITH THE DEATH of Francois Mitterrand, France has lost one of its most significant post-World War II

SIX NEW COUNTRIES officially entered the ranks of developed nations this month, graduating from econ

A senior U.S. official publicly attacks the "shortsighted" trade laws of a close ally. The official

The British government could collapse at any time after the dramatic political events of the past co

JACK KEMP'S National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform reports to Congress Tuesday, and i

SLOVAK PREMIER Vladimir Meciar, the bete noire of East European politics, is upping the stakes in hi

Labor insiders say AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is pushing hard to persuade the trade federation's

As the weather has turned colder since Quebec's Oct. 30 secession vote, so have relations between En

One year ago, the New Year in Mexico brought a fiscal crisis and a devaluation of the peso. This yea

PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK'S appointment of an economist and veteran administrator to form Egypt's new

THE COLLAPSE of a $1.4 billion investment in Russia's telephone monopoly by an Italian firm reveals

As with so much in Washington these days, the increasingly ludicrous budget impasse has come down to

Faced with budget cuts, foreign-aid bureaucrats continue to insist that U.S. assistance is vital to

Bolivia has a long history of providing the world with its mineral wealth. Its Cerro Rico/Potosi sil

DESPITE A YEAR-LONG economic crisis, Mexico has honored its key commitments under the North American

The plan was to wrap up in this space what Congress and the administration jointly achieved in inter

NEVER LET IT BE SAID that Eastern Europeans aren't creative capitalists. Poland, like other

MERCOSUR IS NICE, BUT IT DOESN'T WORKIn your Dec. 26 article, "Hong Kong Sees Growing Busine

The Interstate Commerce Commission, America's oldest regulatory agency, died Dec. 31, at age 108. Eu

THERE ARE DISQUIETING SIGNS from the Clinton administration of an election- year detour from its goa

Gregory N. Austin of Brighton, Mich., is mad, and he is not going to take it any more. Mr. Austin, a

Last month, representatives of the United States and 109 other nations met in Vienna and agreed to f

WITHOUT MUCH FANFARE, the World Trade Organization's agreement on government procurement went into e

Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo owes a huge debt to the Salinas clan for diverting attention from

Caught up in the blow-by-blow accounts of the budget battle in Washington, one might suppose that so

The European Commission is in for a rough ride this year, and that's bad news for Europe. Th

WITH NAFTA EXPANSION stalled by trade gridlock in Washington, Canada is moving ahead on its own. Can

'INVENTED SPELLING' IS REAL TO CHILDRENI agree with Bob Dole's concern with students' readin

WHAT'S AHEAD FOR THE NEW YEAR? Your guess is as good as ours, but we offer these picks anyway:

TWELVE MONTHS AGO, America's transportation industries were poised for major change. 1995 delivered

ALEXANDER LEBED, the charismatic Russian general, has made it official: He will run for the presiden

When I was a graduate student in Italy years ago, one of my American friends used to play a folk son

The curtain has dropped on the first session of the 104th Congress. It was a disappointing performan

Behind the scenes of the budget debate, the Clinton administration is expanding the federal governme

BANKRUPT AND HUNGRY, North Korea is increasingly using blackmail as an instrument of foreign policy.

Today everybody seems to be talking about the flat tax. It's fairer. It's simpler. It's cost

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, 1995 was not an annus horribilis. A majority of the world's population now li