China is facing an enormous oversupply of solar panels and wind turbines, and the problem makes the woes of Solyndra and the rest of the U.S. solar industry look tiny by comparison. The NYT reports: Though worldwide demand for solar panels and wind turbines has grown rapidly over the last five years, China’s manufacturing capacity has soared […]

Reuters reports: Toyota Motor Corp said it had been forced to shut its South African car factory for four days because of an illegal pay strike, the first sign of wildcat mine stoppages spreading into other parts of Africa’s biggest economy.Trade union leaders at the Japanese car giant’s Durban plant said workers would return on […]

WSJ: A consortium including Exxon MobilCorp., ConocoPhillips Co. and BP PLC said late Wednesday it is moving forward with plans to export natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope in a project that could cost as much as $65 billion. The long-awaited effort is expected to have a significant impact not just on Alaska and its economy, but also on […]

Iran’s currency is in massive flux. Fighting erupted on Wednesday when police tried to evict black market money changers near Tehran’s Grand Bazaar. Hundreds of shopkeepers joined the protests. Yesterday many shops in the Bazaar remained closed. Police have clamped down in the city today. The NYT has the story: In the Iranian capital, all […]

I want to make one correction to an assertion I made in my last blog post.  In it, I said that delivery of services like education and health care is something that “states accomplish, and not the institutions that check them.”This is a big overstatement.  The checking institutions actually play a big role in improving […]

News this morning that the unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent is welcome. As we’ve been observing at Via Meadia, the United States is not only in better shape than other developed economies, there are some powerful trends—onshoring, foreign investment, the new energy revolution—pointing toward a more prosperous future than many pessimists assume.The White House […]

Has Romney shifted to the center? Is he spewing misleading numbers and making conflicting promises in an effort to be everything to everybody?Well, yes, to some extent. It’s what campaigners do. But the fetish of this New York Times piece in particular, and the wonk press in general, for “specific programs” and detailed numerical projections […]

Things sure do look different once you’re in power. Having campaigned against the EU fiscal pact negotiated by President Sarkozy, François Hollande now appears to have made a U-turn and is trying to convince the skeptics in his party to back the treaty’s ratification.Hollande, a protégé of Jacques Delors, one of the fathers of the […]

The website of the Free Gaza Movement, a sponsor of the Gaza Flotilla, lists some impressive celebrity endorsements. One of the most impressive names on the list is that of Desmond Tutu, revered throughout the world for his courageous stand against South Africa’s apartheid government and for his leadership of initiatives like the Truth and […]

The U.S. has been criticized, especially by human rights groups, for rushing too fast into Burma after its rulers “opened” the resource-rich but undeveloped country to investment. But the reality is that the U.S. is still lagging far behind Japan in exploring new business ventures in Burma, writes Reuters in a special report: A fast-track deal negotiated […]