With unemployment among American Blacks double the rate for whites, the Congressional Black Caucus is distancing itself from the first Black president. Michigan Representative John Conyers recently said of the president: “We want him to know that from this day forward . . . we’ve had it…We want him to come out on our side and advocate, not to watch and wait.”Politically, […]

The pension problem keeps getting worse; a Burypensions post reports that the decline in asset values due to Friday’s debt downgrade has delivered a major blow to pension programs in New Jersey.Garden State pensions were already in a hole; politicians lied like rats to promise state workers high pensions while hiding the costs from voters.  […]

Last weekend saw the thirteenth anniversary of the bombings of American embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam. The attacks, organized by Al Qaeda, killed twelve American diplomats and over two hundred Kenyans and Tanzanians.We often offer praise to American armed forces personnel for the incredible services they perform, their bravery, poise, determination, and selflessness — they […]

In ‘American Tinderbox‘ I warned that violence can flare up in tense cities without warning.  Since then, the worst riots in London in decades flared over the weekend as gangs roamed the streets, looting stores and fighting with police. 160 people were arrested. It was the worst rioting in decades. The BBC reports: Up to […]

]Real problems have struck Egypt’s pharmaceutical industry. Vital medicines are proving impossible to import and, when available, they are too costly for most of Egypt’s eight million diabetics, four million high blood pressure patients, and its many more cancer sufferers and heart patients. Two thirds of Egypt’s pharmaceutical companies have shut down in the last […]

Yields on Spanish and Italian bonds dropped sharply as the European Central Bank bought them heavily today.  That means we won’t get a total financial meltdown today.  This is good news for all of us, and not just for the many hedge fund managers and Swiss bankers working night and day to keep the vast […]

In case you missed it yesterday, the latest essay is up. You can find it here.

John Judis, who has one of the sharpest minds in American politics, has an important piece at The New Republic today.  It’s important not only for his analysis of the political despair and policy paralysis he sees at the heart of the Obama administration these days; it’s important because he is calling attention to the […]

With the downgrade of US debt and the spread of the European financial crisis to Italy, an important line has been crossed.  The global economic crisis began as a crisis of markets; it has now moved to a crisis of sovereigns.Two years ago we asked if individual firms like Lehman Brothers could manage their debts.  […]

The Syrian crisis is deepening but we seem no closer to the end.The momentum of Syrian street protests seems to have fallen off given the government’s willingness to use extraordinary levels of force.  While the security forces haven’t been able to stop dissidents from protesting, they appear for now to be effective at limiting the […]