In another sign of Asia’s rising affluence and a growing middle class, budget airlines are proliferating across the region. As the New York Times reports, new low-cost airlines are sprouting up everywhere, from Singapore to China to Japan, and established carriers are attracting many more passengers: Just five years ago, Asia-Pacific airlines had a combined fleet […]

One of America’s best young economists, Luigi Zingales, has some smart things to say about fixing the problems with financing American higher education: Investors could finance students’ education with equity rather than debt. In exchange for their capital, the investors would receive a fraction of a student’s future income — or, even better, a fraction […]

Over the past three years of crisis in Europe, a regular pattern has emerged. European leaders argue for months as the situation in a troubled country steadily worsens, but finally cobble together a halfhearted deal at the last possible minute. Investors breathe a sigh of relief, bond yields go down, and things begin to stabilize. […]

Way to go, Australia: Australia plans to create the largest network of marine parks in the world, protecting waters covering an area as large as India while banning oil and gas exploration and limiting commercial fishing in some of the most delicate areas. The country’s marine reserves will increase to 60 from 27 under the […]

The CIA is in Syria, according to today’s WSJ. U.S. intelligence operatives and diplomats have stepped up their contacts with Syrian rebels in part to help organize their burgeoning military operations against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, according to senior U.S. officials.As part of the efforts, the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department—working with Saudi Arabia, […]

A new study has confirmed what Via Meadia readers already know: as Mitt Romney’s candidacy has progressed and his political star has risen, anti-Mormon sentiment among  liberals has also increased. BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins reports: Americans’ aversion to voting for Mormons has spiked since Mitt Romney’s first presidential bid in 2007—and . . . the people […]

Generals and DOD officials must be in the midst of a panicked meeting within the inner sanctum of the Pentagon, because a crack team of Russian investigative journalists have just exposed the darkest and most potent secret of American world power: sex.Read and learn: Ever since the end of World War 2, America has controlled […]

The New York Times reports that Russian fighters stationed in Armenia have stepped up the number of training flights this year by about 20 percent, “sending a clear warning that Russia could intervene at any moment should violence escalate further in the territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” At least eight soldiers were killed in […]

The following is an excerpt from Colin Powell’s book It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership Leaders must be problem solvers. If you are not solving problems, you are no longer leading. Hopefully the problems you are solving relate to you, your organization, or your own interests. That is not always the case. Sometimes […]

The news from the region over the past few days constitutes, as always, more of the same and yet something new. Let me take you on a selective tour, ending with the most attention-arresting story of our time—Syria.Of all the developments in the Arab world, none come close to being as important as those in […]