Handing over control of a tourist hotspot to a party that loathes tourists is asking for trouble, but that’s exactly what Egypt has just done. On Sunday, President Morsi appointed Adel al-Khayat of the Gamaa al-Islamiyya party as Governor of Luxor, a region home to the ruins of two temples and several monuments, widely known […]

In Detroit, bankruptcy lawyer turned city manager Kevyn Orr is playing hardball while preparing the city for a likely Chapter 9 bankruptcy. He’d like the various stakeholders to negotiate a “pre-packaged” bankruptcy in order to avoid a drawn-out and extremely costly legal battle, but reaching agreement could be incredibly tough, as Reuters points out: [G]etting everyone […]

Roughly 20 percent of the world’s workforce works from home at least once a week. Via Meadia’s telework coverage often focuses on the American experience, but remote working is frequently generating more success stories abroad. According to research done by Ipsos, China, Russia, Indonesia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia all have larger percentages of workers working […]

To many it seems inconceivable that the mighty Chinese economy could be headed for major trouble, but recent news should give even the most bullish something to ponder. Consider this analysis from the Financial Times: The problems stem from China’s industrial policies and a vast array of subsidies that allow whole sectors to spring up […]

Violence in Istanbul is threatening President Obama’s relationship with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. What started out as a protest against the development of a park has morphed into a show of much wider discontent. Over the weekend, more than two weeks after the protests started, police used tear gas and water cannons to […]

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard must be feeling like the Russian nobles who kept killing Rasputin, only to see the dreaded monk rise again after each strike. She has now destroyed Kevin Rudd, her former mentor and boss, three times: she drove him from power and replaced him as Prime Minister, then beat back two […]

Thinking back to the late 1990s, I should start with a compliment. Recall the mainstream thinking of those years, when the evolution of a post-Soviet system was expected to deliver the final proof for the magic working of instant democracy and shock therapy; now here comes Thomas Graham, breaking from the established code of interpretation […]

Two big items US security policy hit the news this week. On the domestic front, disaffected libertarian Edward Snowden released information on a secret NSA spying program that has the Beltway elite wringing their hands over the death of privacy and civil liberties. But polls reveal that both ordinary Americans and Europeans are comfortable with government surveillance programs. […]

The global economy is changing dramatically before our eyes—but whether for better or worse isn’t yet clear. That’s the thesis of an insightful WSJ piece on the current instability of international markets: For the past few years, the global economy, struggling to recover from a financial crisis, has relied on a few constants: The U.S. […]

City and state workers around the country think that their defined benefit pension programs are safe; after all, that’s what the politicians and union leaders keep telling them.But to get a glimpse of what the future will look like for many people who think their retirement is assured, take a look at Detroit, where the […]