Could there be something in the water?  The longer President Obama stays in the White House, the more closely his foreign policy seems to track George W. Bush.On the rogue state front, Obama has long since dropped the attempt to reset relations with Iran.  Now at the other end of Eurasia, the US is confronting […]

Gaming the public pension system for inflated retirement funds is bad enough; scamming the public pension system by pretending to have permanent disabilities is much more disgusting. As the NYT reports: The United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, said, ‘Employees [of the Long Island Railroad], in many cases, after claiming to be too disabled […]

Via Meadia is shocked, shocked! at the latest disclosures from Washington DC that some of the President’s largest campaign donors are lobbyists in all but name.  Apparently, some of the people writing checks for thousands of dollars and asking their friends to do the same are hoping to influence government policy! Horrors.  The NYT has […]

One of the most pronounced trends of the 2000’s is now grinding to a temporary halt — the migration of the American population from the Northeastern and Midwestern rust belt to the more temperate sun belt states of the South and Southwest. Cities like Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix had long been magnets for Americans […]

China’s high-speed rail system is descending from “model for the future” to “cautionary tale.”  Its image as a cutting-edge transport system which is perfectly safe was damaged last summer with the crash in Wenzhou.  Passengers are reluctant to get aboard a transport system which has cut corners; a number of people I spoke with in […]

In a rare display of commonsense and humanity, America’s dentists have an important seasonal message for kids:  knock yourselves out on the Halloween candy.  It’s not going to kill you.In fact, the dentists point out, it’s better to let the kids gorge themselves sick on Halloween than to ration the candy out over the days […]

The failure of this administration’s green jobs and targeted subsidy initiatives doesn’t mean that green innovation is dead.  In fact, without clueless bureaucrats, lobby-connected insiders and green zealots making investment decisions they don’t understand, the serious business of making the world cleaner and more efficient may go forward faster than ever.In the wake of Solyndra-gate, […]

The momentum of change in the country formerly known as Burma is picking up. From the Financial Times: Since then, the long-suffering population of Burma (renamed Myanmar by the generals) has witnessed almost unimaginable change. Censorship has been eased to allow debates, criticism and interviews with dissidents in domestic news publications. On the internet, previously […]

The half life of European debt fixes keeps dropping.  Back in the good old days earlier this year, European leaders could announce a definitive new settlement for their long running financial crisis and have three, maybe four days of decent market response before markets processed all the reasons why the fix was a fudge rather […]

Ambitious students take heed: a math major may be a better choice than a law degree. Georgetown’s latest education report names Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) the safest bets for high wages and consistent demand. It reads: High and rising wage premiums are being paid to STEM workers in spite of the increasing global […]