INVESTING Barry Ritholtz: "When discussing bull and bear markets, it sometimes helps to think of them as coming in two distinct flavors: short-term cyclical markets and long-term secular ones. Knowing one from the other isn't always easy." Read more...
TECH Leonid Bershidsky: "Swiss watchmakers seem to be scrambling to respond to the challenge posed by smartwatch producers after ignoring them for years. The perceived slowness to embrace the wearable revolution isn't ignorance or hubris. It's marketing wisdom." Read more...
HEALTH-CARE REFORM The Editors: "Congress is within reach of trashing the old and unworkable formula that Medicare uses to pay doctors. By itself, this is what it sounds like -- a bureaucratic maneuver that matters little to anyone but the doctors who treat Medicare patients. The system that Congress replaces it with, however, could represent a big step forward in improving the quality, and lowering the cost, of everyone's health care." Read more...
MIDDLE EAST Daniel Gordis: To the extent American Jews "identify with and support an Israel that seems like the U.S. except for its being Hebrew-speaking and falafel-eating, the Israel of yesteryear will have much more appeal than the Israel of tomorrow. As Israel becomes more Middle Eastern and less European, and especially as the Middle East becomes increasingly dangerous, Israelis' instincts are likely to be very different from what many American Jews wish they would be." Read more...
LAW Noah Feldman: "Who needs law school? For centuries, the answer in the English-speaking world was: no one. ... Let me make a big admission: Law school isn't really necessary for lawyers or their clients." Read more...
EUROPE Mark Gilbert: "Two taboos about Greece's future as a member of the euro club were broken this week when the German finance minister all but invited Greece to return to the drachma and the Dutch finance minister floated a temporary ban on Greeks' taking their money out of the country." Read more...
2016 ELECTIONS Jonathan Bernstein: "Politicians should be responsible for the people who staff their campaigns, right? Yes. Now, let's try to do it the right way." Read more...
SPORTS Kavitha A. Davidson: "National Football League owners will meet next week in Phoenix and discuss, among other things, 23 proposed rule changes, 19 of which were submitted by individual teams. Many of them stand no chance of approval, but the bulk of them are aimed at improving the league's system of challenges and instant replays. At the very least, the proposals offer an interesting glimpse into the mindset of certain teams." Read more... | 
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