In response to rising wage costs in Indonesia, Nike is cutting the number of workers in its factories there, turning instead toward cutting-edge manufacturing technology. The FT reports that the company is now using 3D printing to make “prototype soles” and is exploring other ways to “engineer the labor out of the product.”The upward pressure on labor […]

More college grads than ever are now working as taxi drivers, firefighters, and bartenders. And this underemployment problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. That’s because, as Peter Orzag contends in Bloomberg, the market demand for cognitive skills associated with higher education has been in decline for 13 years. He borrows from […]

If you don’t know about ACOs, you should, for they could play a huge part in making our health system much smarter. Abhas Gupta reports on what an “ACO” is and how it could save US health care: An Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is a health system where providers—doctors, hospitals, etc.—agree to align financial incentives with better […]

This week Pakistan’s new government threw its weight behind the effort to prosecute former military dictator Pervez Musharraf for treason. In 1999, Musharraf ousted then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (who recently returned for a third term in office), and a military court sentenced him to life in prison on an assortment of charges including terrorism and […]

Student loan rates are set to double on Monday as US Senators failed to reach a compromise and headed home for the July 4 recess. But as the estimable Glenn Reynolds writes in the WSJ, the interest rate isn’t the real issue. None of the plans on offer—Republican, Democrat, or White House—will fix the core problem […]

China’s Foreign Minister issued a stern warning to neighboring countries today, saying that efforts to resist China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea are “futile” and countries that do so are “doomed.” The threat was timed to coincide with joint naval war games exercises by the US and the Philippines in the South China […]

America has a graduation problem. We encourage as many high school students as possible to enroll in college. But many of these students never make it to the finish line, leaving college with thousands of dollars of debt and little or no advantage in the job market. Eduardo Porter rehearses these grim dropout stats in the New York […]

Congress has been threatening to allow interest rates on federal student loans to double for a while now, but this time it looks like it’s actually going to happen. Unless Congress takes action now, hikes will take effect on July 1 for all future borrowers. Two groups of senators have unveiled two different plans to avert […]

Europe’s green policies have been an unmitigated disaster. The continent is having second thoughts on its misguided green policies, and it’s not hard to see why. By propping up uncompetitive solar and wind projects, Europe has driven prices up and driven energy-intensive industry away towards shale-flush America. By refusing to embrace the shale revolution, Europe has become […]

It’s an unusual scene: The Chinese government today welcomed South Korean President Park Geun-hye with a bouquet of flowers, an elaborate banquet, and the promise of a meeting with Xi Jinping. Across town, a “furtive, hastily arranged” meeting took place between Chinese officials and two North Koreans, a senior officer and a diplomat. The Norks, […]