Japan’s finance minister, Taro Aso, was roundly denounced today after he said that Japan should take a cue from the Nazis in changing the country’s constitution. His aides say the remarks were taken out of context and that he didn’t mean to praise Nazi Germany but, well, see for yourself:“Germany’s Weimar Constitution was changed before anyone […]

Pope Francis has been widely praised for his simple ways and modest demeanor. When he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he traveled by public transport. He is now living in a Vatican guest house instead of the lavish Papal Apartments. He also wears ordinary leather shoes, not the traditional velvet slippers. (As far as I […]

Thirty-seven percent of Midwestern families decided to use a retail clinic for minor pediatric health issues rather than a primary care physician, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Time has the story: In a corresponding editorial, Dr. Edward Schor of the Lucille Packard Foundation for Children’s Health in Palo Alto, California wrote that such […]

The banner was huge. When it was unfurled by South Korean soccer fans at the East Asian Cup final on Sunday, it stretched nearly the width of the field. “There is no future for a race oblivious to history,” it read.The banner came out moments after Japanese fans at the other end of the stadium waved […]

For the third year in a row, incarceration rates are dropping nationwide amid an unprecedented shift in criminal justice policy. NYT: The number of inmates in state and federal prisons decreased by 1.7 percent, to an estimated 1,571,013 in 2012 from 1,598,783 in 2011, according to figures released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, an […]

Anyone interested in the breakdown of the Fordist model of American productivity and the ideas jostling to replace it should read Adam Davidson’s piece in the New York Times Magazine, “What’s an Idea Worth?” It demonstrates something that we’ve long been observing here at Via Meadia: the industrial conception of how to organize and evaluate […]

All that EU spending to subsidize green energy hasn’t much moved the needle on green energy use, says Bjorn Lomborg in today’s FT.The EU’s climate policy is estimated to cost $250 billion per year. Germany alone has already spent $130 billion on solar subsidies, he writes. Spain spends almost 1% of its GDP on subsidizing green projects. […]

Japan and several ASEAN countries have a common China problem. China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea infringe on claims made by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and others. The same goes for Japan in the East China Sea. So Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent trip to Southeast Asia makes a lot of sense and signifies Japan’s […]

It looks like Detroit may yet have competition for the distinction of America’s most poorly run city. The unprecedented triple-drop in Chicago’s bond rating and the city’s shiny new long-term debt figure—$29 billion—should have pols quaking in their boots. The Chicago Sun-Times has published some distressing numbers from Chicago’s recent audits: The number of “physical […]

An article in this morning’s FT powerfully highlights how completely sclerotic and status quo-minded the EU’s leadership has become. There’s no more talk of re-jiggering the seemingly untenable terms of the Greek bailout, no talk of setting up an EU banking union to manage future crises—nothing comes up that could possibly upset German voters. Everyone is basically sitting […]