India, Japan and the US held their first ever strategic trilateral talks about Asia this week, as we noted earlier on Via Meadia.  Something else is trilateral as well:  Myanmar policy.As the Burmese generals have edged away from China’s suffocating embrace, the US sent Secretary Clinton with words of encouragement, and Japan reopened the foreign […]

The Holy Qu’ran has many merits, but if it contains an infallible guide to currency policy, the mullahs of Iran have failed to find it. During the past two days, increased sanctions have caused the Iranian rial, to collapse against the dollar prompting confusion even among the country’s highest officials. The NYT reports: The rial’s […]

The Obama administration has a pretty clear and realistic idea about US goals in Afghanistan, but is having a hard time reaching them.  That at least is the meaning of the very important Washington Post story this morning that covers the outlines of a deal reached between the US and the Taliban and the collapse […]

We already have 1930s style economic problems in much of Europe; is fascism next? If the current Hungarian government gets its way, maybe so.  The government of Hungary, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz Party, is pushing the country away from democracy and toward authoritarian nationalist rule with anti-Semitic undertones. A draconian […]

Sexagenarians take note: in a time of weak markets and shaky pensions, retiring well on a tight budget may be easier than you think. There’s a place where warm weather, good health care, low taxes, friendly neighbors and beautiful surroundings are available year round, cheap, and beachfront homes go for about $100,000.Curious? It’s in a […]

President Bush’s No Child Left Behind act was widely hailed as a bipartisan cure for the problems of American education.  That no longer rings true; the law has been in force for some time and plenty of children are being left behind every day at schools from all over the land.The law’s goals include tracking […]

In yet another sign of closer cooperation between Asian powers and the US, Japan has chosen the F-35 fighter as the jet of choice to upgrade its air force.Reports the WSJ: Washington, Japan’s chief security ally, had quietly pushed the case for a U.S. jet by highlighting the importance of interoperability and the ability to share […]

The Armenian genocide has become a serious sticking point between the French and Turks. As our readers probably know, Turkey refuses to officially recognize the massacre of Armenians during and after WWI as a “genocide.” Paris takes another view, and last night legislatures voted to make it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide. Readers […]

In recent days world markets have rallied as the scale of ECB funding to Europe’s banks becomes clear.  A torrent of euros has gushed into bank vaults all over the Old World: something like $700 billion dollars.  The money comes at an attractively low interest rate: one percent.  (There are days Via Meadia wishes we […]

Sitting in a Pizza Hut just a block from Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Mina Rezkalla can’t stop telling me how much he loves Seinfeld. This is strange not least because Egypt is one of the most anti-Semitic countries in the world and Jerry Seinfeld’s eponymous television series is an exemplar of American Jewish humor. A 2010 […]