It is the best of times and the worst of times in Brazil.  The country has so far survived the global economic upheaval in good shape; but Brazil is haunted by 200 years of promise that never quite panned out. Brazil’s disappointments are usually related to the interplay of two problems: the booms and busts […]

My Bard colleague David Nelson serves as the Jewish chaplain and from time to time shares thoughts and reflections with the faculty by email — a kind of in-house blog.  With his permission, I’m reposting his latest entry here.  It’s useful and interesting for what it says, and as a model of how a solid […]

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 […]