About this time last year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was preparing for an imminent S&P downgrade of his country’s credit rating from its cherished AAA status. Under President Hollande, the story is the same, only this time it’s Moody’s that has downgraded France from AAA to AA1, with warnings that it may fall further if France […]

In another indication that the UK is steadily drifting away from the EU, 56 percent of British citizens polled said they would vote to leave the European Union, and only 28 percent held a positive opinion of the institution.  The Guardian: About 68% of Conservative voters want to leave the EU, against 24% who want to […]

Strange things are afoot at the ASEAN meeting in Phnom Penh.First, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a statement on behalf of all ten ASEAN nations that the group would not “internationalize” disputes over island and ocean territory. Cambodia is a staunch ally of China, and this statement was seen as a victory for China’s attempts […]

When the New York Times is good, it is really good, and it has been all over the online higher ed story like white on rice. Today it has yet another illuminating piece on how massive open online courses (MOOCs) are transforming higher-ed.Professors face a host of challenges in adapting to the new platform: devising teaching methods appropriate for […]

The Wall Street Journal reports that two of the most important indicators of health in the housing market—construction of new homes and sales of pre-existing homes—both rose last month to highs not seen in the past four or five years.The numbers on existing-home sales are particularly encouraging, as they mean that we are finally cutting into the […]

Via Meadia is hiring!We are pleased to announce that Via Meadia is looking for three new staff writer positions: a senior writer and two junior writers. All would likely be relatively recent college grads; the “senior” writer would have some experience and expertise in important domestic policy issues that Via Meadia follows — or intends to follow as we expand […]

Dozens of people have been killed in fighting between secularist Tuareg rebels and an Islamist extremist group in northern Mali, AFP reports: “It’s a real massacre. There are dozens dead,” said a Malian security source, referring to the fighting in the region of Gao. Witnesses on the ground confirmed the scale of the clashes.The fighting […]

Ten years ago, the airwaves were ripe with complaints that big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target were driving local mom-and-pop stores out of business. How quickly times change: Now the big-box stores are the ones struggling to find a reason to exist as online shopping begins to eat into their market share. The Washington Post has a […]

Jerry Seib made some interesting observations over at the Wall Street Journal yesterday about the ongoing Gaza war and how it pertains to Iran. Iran, he surmised, may have pushed for the current conflict with Hamas’ leadership in order to tie Israel down militarily on its southern border, thereby limiting Israel’s ability to contemplate taking action […]

A bomb ripped through a bus in the Little Somalia neighborhood of Nairobi on Sunday, killing nine civilians. Many Kenyans immediately put the blame on Nairobi’s Somali community. “People are angry. They are angry because of the people throwing bombs and grenades. They are blaming the Somalis. These Somalis are living with us but you […]