The international trading system based on the World Trade Organization in Geneva is falling apart.  The Doha Round is brain dead, though the doctors don’t want to cut off life support just yet.  These days, when trade agreements happen, they tend to be bilateral deals or agreements among a small number of countries.The march to […]

Michael Moore won’t be alone if he heads to Cuba for his next doctor’s visit; Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez turned down an offer from Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff last week to seek treatment for cancer in her country, choosing instead to rely on the healthcare system that Fidel built.Chavez’s decision may have been motivated by […]

Recent violence in the central Syrian city of Homs looks grim. Beginning last Friday and continuing over the weekend, tit-for-tat killings between the city’s Sunni Muslim and Alawite communities resulted in thirty deaths. By Monday, residents described the city as gripped by fear.  Shops were closed, sporadic gunfire rang out across the city.  A Facebook […]

Writing about race and religion brings out the trolls; Via Meadia‘s normally urbane and civilized comment pages have been invaded recently by two groups of posters.  One wants to argue simultaneously that anti-Semitism doesn’t exist and that it is caused by the bad behavior of Jews.  The other wants to turn discussions of urban policy […]

“Pathetic”, tweeted Ambassador Susan Rice.  The UN Security Council met today to discuss creating a force of green peacekeepers who would be responsible for moderating in conflicts brought on by climate change, resource shortages, and the like.  It’s an idea that deserves to die and did; even worse for the greens, the Security Council refused […]

The US-India rapprochement makes Pakistan and China unhappy. Could this lead to an even more robust Pakistani-Chinese partnership?For Pakistanis it’s a no-brainer; Uncle Sugar has been a bitter disappointment lately.  China is the bright new hope.It isn’t so simple for China. Despite the strategic and economic benefits of cooperation with its southern neighbor, China — like […]

Liberia, founded as a home for freed American slaves, is best known for devastating civil wars and brutally cruel dictators.  It now has a new problem on its hands: oil.  Nearby Nigeria and Ghana already enjoy the proceeds of the Cretaceous Trend, the 1,000 kilometer-long, oil-rich geological feature off the coast of west Africa.  To […]

Is it time to flip the classroom?That’s what they think at the non-profit Khan Academy, where students watch lectures at home and do ‘homework’ in school.According to an article at Wired, the Khan method costs less and student test scores go up.Some challenge the academy’s claims, others support them.  This may or may not be […]

America’s poorly designed and counterproductive ethanol subsidies are driving up the price of food all over the world, according to a study for the Ford Foundation.27% of the US corn crop went to subsidized ethanol at a time when food price inflation was causing terrible hardship to poor families.   The USDA estimated in 2008 that rising […]

“Don’t go, Mr. Murdoch,” begs a writer in Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine.  People who hate tabloids (and Fox News) are stuffy intellectuals who loathe their own unwashed and unenlightened fellow citizens, says Spiegel.  Balanced budget amendment, hatred of bailouts, now this: is Germany turning into a red state?