With 77 percent approval ratings, things could hardly be better for Brazilian President Dilma Roussef, but those numbers may be about to take a dive. The Wall Street Journal reports that early next month the Supreme Court will hear a major corruption case against members of Roussef’s Workers’ Party that is expected to dominate headlines for weeks.If […]

At a time when American higher education is facing perhaps the gravest crisis in its history, it seems like every passing week brings a new idea or new advance in technology with the potential to change things for the better. Via Meadia has extensively discussed the rise of online education and distance learning. Now the New York Times is featuring […]

For most states in these times, the biggest problem is finding the money to spend on essential services. But in California, the state can’t even spend money once it finds it.The Wall Street Journal reports that, despite the $700 million dollars allocated by Sacramento to upgrade mass transit systems in the Bay Area, people probably won’t […]

At least twice in my comments on Syria over the past several months I have dismissed the possibility that the Syrian opposition could summon the ability to storm the Assad regime’s “palace” and overthrow the regime by direct force. I have argued instead that the pressure mounted by the opposition was far more likely to […]

This is the headline that Western Europe doesn’t want you to see: The euro mess has driven several large fund managers away from places like Spain, Italy and France and into the debt markets of the likes of Serbia, Hungary and even Iraq. To some investors, the vulnerability of these small and politically tenuous states […]

The New York Times reports that the U.S. Postal Service is now expecting to default on a $5.5 billion payment into the fund for health benefits for future retirees when the bill comes due next month. Although this will not impede operations in the short term, it is a clear warning sign that the agency cannot […]

One of the few bright spots in the gloomy world economic picture has been the absence of inflation even as governments around the world go deep into debt and the world’s central banks print money in unprecedented quantities.Could that be changing?Energy and food are pretty much the basics of the world system, and prices may […]

Iran apologists were all over the internet yesterday claiming that Iran and its allies had nothing to do with the attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, but evidence is mounting that they were wrong. U.S. officials have fingered Hezbollah as being responsible for the attack. The NY Times reports: The attacks, the official said, were in […]

Close to 100,000 Malian refugees huddle under makeshift tents in eastern Mauritania, swapping stories of jihadists’ brutal imposition of Sharia law in the northern regions. Their detailed accounts of persecution are sadly familiar: beatings in the street of women unaccompanied by men, of anyone outside their homes at night, and of those who display their adherence […]

With bombs in Bulgaria, war in Syria, murder in Colorado and meltdowns in Europe, it’s easy to forget that the most important world events are taking place in Asia, where the US, China and assorted other countries are hammering out the shape of a new Asian order. (Some days they hammer together, some days they […]