Worried apparently that creditors will figure out ways to put claims on his foreign assets, and that Hermione Clinton and Barry “Don’t Call Me Hussein” Potter  might persuade the UN Security Council to tell the Ministry of Magic to sanction his hoard one of these days, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez is moving the gold out […]

As American colleges turn into overpriced and badly managed vocational and technical institutes, the ideal of a liberal education falls farther and farther from view.  On the “practical” side many colleges now offer majors in topics like business administration and recreation management.  Fair enough in its way, although this is an incredibly expensive and ineffective […]

Headline in the Wall Street Journal: “Sheen Emanated From BP Platform”That explains a lot, I suppose.  He clearly didn’t get here in the usual way.

In this time of revolution, crisis and market upheaval, at least one traditional building block in world politics seems to be emerging stronger than ever.This is the mysterious and perplexing “Anglosphere”, a group of countries where English is the first language of the majority of the population, political institutions and ideas are based in the […]

The bad news just keeps coming. Coming close on the recent revelation that economic growth is slowing faster than expected in France and Germany, British labor figures have disappointed forecasters and it seems that Greece is heading for yet another recession despite optimistic predictions to the contrary.A familiar pattern is emerging here. European leaders attempt to […]

With the Middle East in flames and news coming faster than governments can react, nothing is more important than to step back from the fray, take a deep breath and get some perspective.  Historical perspective.  That is particularly true when looking at what historians may consider the most important change in the Middle East recent […]

Hamas has some interesting political ideas; it appears that it is only a bad thing to kill Palestinians and shell refugee camps when Jews do it.  When anti-Sunni Arab dictators shell peaceful Palestinians, that is perfectly OK.The breathtaking cynicism of the leadership of this terrorist organization is rarely so openly on display, but when the […]

The “green jobs” idea — that we could vitalize the economy by spending tons of money on promoting ‘green energy’ and other green ideas — is running into trouble. Prominent (and much subsidized) solar manufacturer Evergreen Solar is filing for bankruptcy, citing lower prices and increased competition from a familiar source: “When margins are getting […]

Welcome to August, the annual peak of the “climate IS weather” phase of green propaganda.  Every heat wave, every drought, every hurricane proves that the world is melting NOW and if we don’t immediately do whatever Al Gore is currently suggesting we are all going to die!!!  Horribly.In the fall green propagandists begin their great […]

Ethnic hate violence in the New York of Pakistan is out of control. Gunmen aligned with two competing ethnic/political groups, are carving up the city, each other and bystanders in brutal attacks on a scale not seen in the city in decades.Matthew Green takes a look at the city and the violence in yesterday’s FT: […]