It is the old and now familiar story.  In Europe, a paralyzed political establishment is watching the steady deterioration of the financial system like the proverbial deer in the headlights.  In the US, the oncoming train wreck of entitlement spending elicits the same response: fatalistic passivity. Add growing worries about the Chinese and Indian financial […]

The public sector labor wars are heating up all over, and both parties are fighting the unions.  In California Governor Jerry Brown is cutting union pensions; further wage cutbacks for state and local workers are clearly on the way.  The events in Wisconsin and Ohio are well known, but in Detroit and Chicago Democratic mayors […]

Neutrinos aren’t the only things that seem to be moving faster than light these days; the revolution in American education is also moving at warp speed.  Already this fall there have been stories about large new financial interests getting into the world of online education and about the rapid growth in online high schools.Now comes […]

Bases in Australia, opening to Myanmar, uranium deals between Australia and India: the hurricane of China-balancing activity in Asia last week was one of the rare sets of events that can truly be called historic.And now, as it turns out, it isn’t over.  Not only did all but two of the Asian nations present at […]

Some would say that “useless” is not a word that should be lightly employed by the nonagenarian consort of a constitutional queen; the Duke of Edinburgh does not have a role in British government and his lifelong task, which he has not always accomplished to perfection, is to repeat the performance of the House of […]

This is the second installment of the week in review, which brings you highlights from the week and news from the Team. Via Meadia’s main preoccupation during the week was the breathtaking and audacious series of US moves in Asia.  Most mainstream news outlets — weak as always in their Asia coverage — did not […]

The cascade of statements, deployments, agreements and announcements from the United States and its regional associates in the last week has to be one of the most unpleasant shocks for China’s leadership — ever.  The US is moving forces to Australia, Australia is selling uranium to India, Japan is stepping up military actions and coordinating […]

A leaked memo from Germany’s government called “The Future of the EU” is bound to have Club Med crying wolf.  Among other things, the memo calls for greater political integration “with spending and tax plans set in Brussels” and “automatic sanctions” for countries that fail to meet the EU’s fiscal targets. The Daily Telegraph has […]

For over a century, Einstein’s theory of relativity has been one of the unimpeachable pillars of science, so much so that the statement “nothing is faster than light” is often taken as a simple fact of life. It is a theory upon which much of modern physics is based.Several weeks ago, scientists in Europe came […]

A recent press release masquerading as a news article in the New York Times is a classic example of journalistic flackery at its worst. A profile of new “green” urban development in Fort Collins, CO doesn’t just cross the line between optimism and fawning propaganda. It takes vacuous puffery to new levels, reaching levels of […]