Today’s trade figures are the worst of all possible worlds.  The US trade deficit widened to $53.1 billion in June — much higher than forecast.  That’s bad enough news when world markets are still reeling from the credit downgrade.  But there’s more.  Imports actually shrank in June — a sign that the US domestic economy […]

As a massive government linked bureaucracy with offices in every county in America, the US postal system is possibly the most prominent symbol of the Blue Social Model in the country. Tuesday’s announcement that thousands of post offices will be closing to reduce costs is a major step towards the rollback of that model, a […]

This isn’t going to help quiet the angry mobs in New Delhi: senior Indian army officials have been accused of misappropriating prime real estate built for soldiers wounded in the line of duty for themselves and their families.The Indian Comptroller and Auditor General office’s willingness to publish such a report and the ability of protestors […]

A European competition to create artwork for the UN anti-violence-against-women publicity campaign is close to selecting a winning design.What a pathetic waste.Europe, in case anyone hasn’t noticed, has fully recovered from World War Two and no longer needs outside funding to support its cultural life.  Perhaps there’s a continent where women are at less risk from […]

“Keeping a mistress is just like playing golf,” Jian, a wealthy 42-year-old property developer recently told the NYT in a story on the return of the old pre-communist Chinese custom of keeping mistresses.   “Both are expensive hobbies.”China’s nouveau riche can have everything they want — from fancy cars to expensive apartments to mistresses. Some, […]

Guy Sorman has an interesting article at City Journal attacking the notion that Islam and capitalism are incompatible: But a bigger reason for the Arab world’s stagnation is political. In nearly every Arab Muslim country, the prime enemy of entrepreneurship and the free market is an abusive government—and the strong, unaccountable, and usually despotic regimes […]

A scandal involving highly paid public “servants’ is sweeping through the California public pensions system. The LA Times reports: Former City Administrator Robert Rizzo is now set to receive $50,000 per year. Before, he had been poised to get $650,000 a year from CalPERS and more than $1 million annually overall when a second pension […]

Following repeated claims by whistle-blowers, the government finally launched a lawsuit against a for-profit college company owned by Goldman Sachs that was allegedly defrauding the government and students for billions of dollars. The NYT reported on Monday: The Education Management Corporation, the nation’s second-largest for-profit college company, [is being charged by the government] that it was not eligible […]

Who says Americans can’t think outside the box anymore?A self described “former economic adviser” to the Mayor of Oakland (not the current Governor of California for whom some moonbeams are too moonbatty to hire) argues that the Wisconsin State Fair mini-riot was a plot by Scott Walker.  Noam Chomsky watch out — the competition is […]

Foreign travelers, journalists and even expats living in Cairo have been rounded up by mobs of Egyptian volunteers and delivered to police stations for interrogation. Egypt’s new military rulers seem to be stoking fears of foreign plots aimed at hijacking the Revolution. From the WSJ: The military-inspired xenophobia campaign has been amplified by resurgent Islamists, […]