In 1935, when the Social Security Act was passed, the average American lifespan was 61.7 years.Today, it’s 81.7.Suddenly, keeping the retirement age at 60 doesn’t make much sense. Or so says AIG Chairman Robert Benmosche, who favors increasing the retirement age to 80. An economy with a rapidly aging workforce can only survive, he argues, […]

China is playing down U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s recent visit to Vietnam, where he announced plans for a ramped-up U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific. Yesterday a spokesman at China’s Foreign Ministry called the plans for more U.S. warships “out of keeping with the times,” a blasé reaction to Washington’s new grand strategy. Similarly, Lieutenant General Ren […]

Much of the country is watching the Democrats’ attempt to save the blue model in Wisconsin’s recall election today, but in Providence, Rhode Island, it is the Democrats themselves who are taking on big blue. Mayor Angel Taveras’s proposed deal to modify the pensions of government workers in order to save the city from bankruptcy follows up […]

Roughly two weeks have passed since we last took the temperature of the presidential race, and so it’s time for another look at where the candidates stand. Using our standard method of measuring the national swing since the 2008 vote and applying that swing equally across the board to all 50 states and the District […]

Policymakers stumped about how to lower stratospheric healthcare costs should look abroad, where a number of countries are finding creative solutions to chronic doctor shortages. A new piece in the Economist profiles transformations in the delivery of medicine: But this demand for health care looks unlikely to be met by doctors in the way the past […]

College students will grimace at today’s Wall Street Journal, which reports that, for the first time ever, a majority of the unemployed have completed some college education: In May 4.8 million of the 9.2 million people older than 25 looking for work had spent at least some time in college, while 48% of the unemployed had […]

As we predicted months ago when Via Meadia surveyed the rising anti-Jewish climate across Europe, anti-Semitic sentiment in France shows no sign of abating. The Jerusalem Post reports on the latest incident: Three Jews wearing kipot were attacked by 10 people in Villeurbanne, France, near Lyon, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls was quoted as saying […]

Even The New York Times has thrown in the towel on the Wisconsin recall.With an Intrade poll citing Walker’s chances of winning the Wisconsin recall at more than 93%, The New York Times is entering into full-blown panic mode over what this election could mean for Obama’s chances this November: A Republican resurgence here, which has […]

[Via Meadia’s Turkish press roundup is kindly provided by our man in Istanbul.]After Deputies and Ministers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) roundly criticized the Assad regime for the Houla massacre, the government announced its plans to impose additional sanctions on Syria (Anadolu Ajansı). Earlier in the week, Today’s Zaman ran a heavily […]

With summer vacation upon them, students probably aren’t thinking much about their health insurance at the moment, but when they go back to school in August they may be in for a nasty surprise. Many schools are discontinuing affordable student insurance programs, citing new Obamacare regulations that would render these programs prohibitively expensive.The Wall Street […]