The war on the young is led “by cadres of elderly men, content to manage decline” and exacerbated by younger generations, who don’t seem to know what’s going on or understand the gravity of the financial situation that will hit them in the future. Luke Johnson, writing in the FT, describes the Italian and Japanese version […]

President Obama’s review of wasteful federal spending is digging up some unsettling numbers. According to the Labor Department, at a time of high unemployment and tight budgets dozens of states are fraudulently helping too many people, not too few. The WSJ reports: Nearly $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error during the three years […]

The Obama administration is in hot water while Congress investigates the bankruptcy of solar panel maker Solyndra, a major recipient of federal stimulus loans. Whether or not the federal investigation into Solyndra uncovers a serious scandal, the situation smells a little, well, organic. A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create […]

The blue social model was already unsustainably expensive for states like New York, California and Illinois.  Now antsy bond markets are raising the price. The bond markets have long ignored the high costs and poor economic performance of blue model states; no more.Paul E. Peterson and Daniel Nadler explain the challenges these states will face […]

With Europe unable to solve its financial crisis on its own, attention has turned abroad as bankers look to Asia and the US for help. China balked; luckily for Europe, Uncle Sam is still a reliable friend. The Federal Reserve, along with several other central banks, is stepping in to save the day. The European […]

Corruption scandals are rocking the administration of Brazil’s new president Dilma Rousseff – yesterday saw the ouster of the fifth cabinet-level official since June. According to the WSJ: Though none of the officials have been formally charged with any crimes, the scandals have reminded Brazilians that despite recent economic gains, corruption remains a significant obstacle […]

One of the less-discussed problems with blistering economic growth is “managing abundance.” As countries like China, India, Brazil, and Turkey post high growth rates year after year, the boom times can plant economic time bombs.In Brazil, fears have begun to mount over a “crisis” in liquidity, despite high interest rates. The culprit? Brazil’s own success: […]

James Carville has looked at the results of the Nevada and New York congressional elections and has a word of advice for the White House:Panic!Beyond that, Carville suggests that the President fire his economic advisers and maybe his Attorney General, force the Justice Department to indict a bunch of bankers, launch a rhetorical campaign attacking […]

There’s an interesting article in the most recent issue of the New York Review of Books that echoes some of the thoughts on Via Meadia about the Arab Spring. The authors show that the events of 2011 in the Arab world were far from unprecedented; in fact, the sentiment that swept Mubarak and Ben Ali from […]

There have been a lot of headlines about the US poverty rate lately, many aimed at stampeding us into pumping more money into blue social programs.  But as the Wall Street Journal reports, recent Census Bureau statistics on poverty in the United States are misleading. The rate released Tuesday by the Census Bureau showed some 15.1% […]