The Dutch government just released a report finding that the environmental risks of fracking shale can be managed. It’s a small but important step for the country, but also for the future of shale energy in Europe. American companies are already balancing the risks of drilling—including the fines, loss of resources, and bad press that […]

One unexpected outcome of the charter school revolution has been the compression of teachers’ careers. While traditional public schools were often staffed by older teachers who approached the job as a lifetime occupation, the charter school movement has attracted a number of idealistic young people who come in and teach for a few years before […]

In The Importance of Being Earnest, an impressionable young student is advised to skip the chapter in her economics textbook on the Indian rupee as it is “too sensational.” The adventures of the rupee this summer live up to that billing; India is now facing a full blown currency crash.When I came to India for […]

The last of the ancient kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was approached one day by a woman who offered nine books of prophecy at a steep price. The king refused; the price was too high. The woman burned three of the books and offered the remaining six at the original price. Nothing doing, said […]

Public pensions are in deep trouble across the country, but you might not know it to look at some of their investing decisions. Despite the need to earn the highest possible returns on their investments for their stakeholders, a number of public pension funds are using their investment power to support pet political causes.We’ve beat […]

We are saddened to learn that David S. Landes, economic historian and author of canonical works such as The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and A Revolution In Time passed away on August 17. If you by chance are not acquainted with his work, we encourage you to start by reading Chapter 1 of his Prometheus Unbound, excerpted […]

Americans may think they’ve got it bad when it comes to commuting, but China’s got the US beat when it comes to horror commutes. The average American commute takes 25.4 minutes each way, but the average Beijing resident spends 52 minutes heading in to work, with the average commuter in Guangzhou and Shanghai taking only […]

India’s state-owned energy Oil and Natural Gas Corporation bought a 10 percent stake in Area 1, a gas field off the coast of Mozambique, for $4.2 billion today. Area 1 is estimated to contain as much as 65 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and is one of the largest offshore gas fields in the world. […]

How bad is drug abuse in North Korea? Pretty catastrophic, by some estimates. “Almost every adult in that area (northern North Korea) has experienced using [crystal meth] and not just once,” a co-author of a recent study that’s been making the rounds told the Wall Street Journal. “I estimate that at least 40% to 50% are […]

College diplomas are one of the most expensive things a young person can buy, but for employers, at least, they’re not worth very much. Businesses and HR departments have long complained that students leave college unprepared for the workforce, and that academic success as measured by GPA isn’t a reliable predictor of employee performance. Schools […]