Budget shortfalls, cuts in federal funding, and the threat of total financial ruin are pushing municipalities to innovate—and they’re pushing hard. Case in point: the Economist recently profiled Sandy Springs, a northern suburb of Atlanta that, emergency services aside, only employs seven people full-time and outsources many of its essential services to private companies.The unorthodox […]

Give me the money or wreck Europe. That is Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti’s message to Germany, according to the AP: Mario Monti told German news magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Sunday that eurozone tensions over the past few years “bear the traits of a psychological dissolution of Europe,” adding that Europe “must work hard to contain […]

“Amid the gloom there are unexpected signs of boom, especially in energy,” begins a tentatively hopeful report in the Economist on America’s economy. Those signs of boom begin with all that newly available oil and gas being pumped out of shale formations across the country, but they extend widely into other sectors that work with […]

The WHO has just announced that the recent Ebola outbreak in rural Uganda is now under control. Ebola outbreaks are infrequent and usually end quickly, but with a mortality rate as high as 90 percent, they’re a steep challenge for doctors and health officials.Containing this outbreak was even more challenging, though, because the victims did not […]

Longtime India watchers should not be surprised at this latest turn of events: India worked hard behind the scenes on Friday to dilute a Saudi Arabia-drafted UNGA resolution, which severely indicted Syria for the situation prevailing in the country, but finally abstained from voting after the draft could not be rid of reference to the July 22nd League of […]

In Syria, a rebel commander took dozens of Iranians hostage after discovering them traveling, rather conspicuously, through Damascus. Today, Iran has appealed to the rebel-friendly governments of Turkey and Qatar to get its citizens back—trouble is, they may not be mere “citizens.” LA Times reports: The [rebel] commander labeled the captives Iranian militiamen nabbed while on […]

Finally, we have some (arguably) good economic news: Americans’ credit levels have returned to their pre-recession peak of $2.58 trillion. This is usually a good sign for the economy. Higher credit means more consumers are shopping, more banks are lending, and confidence in general is up.But as the Wall Street Journal points out, this news comes […]

The pace of defections from the Assad regime is picking up, with Prime Minister Riad Hijab being the latest high-level civilian official to skip town. A Sunni Muslim from the eastern part of Syria, he announced from Jordan that he has cast his lot with the resistance. The regime claimed that he had been fired, but […]

The gridlock in Washington and the prospect of the “fiscal cliff” has already started to hurt the real economy. Companies are holding back on investments and hiring because of uncertainty, reports the NYT: A rising number of manufacturers are canceling new investments and putting off new hires because they fear paralysis in Washington will force […]

Things are getting dicey in the Asian Game of Thrones. Over the weekend, China summoned and dressed down a U.S. diplomat in an escalating war of words over the South China Sea: The Foreign Ministry said on its website late Saturday that it summoned the U.S. deputy chief of mission in Beijing, Robert Wang, to […]