Venezuela may soon be forced to add hyperinflation to its list of socialist disasters. The FT reports that price rises last month hit an all time high while the economy careens into recession: Prices rose 6.1 per cent in May, compared with 1.6 per cent in the same period last year, bringing accumulated inflation for […]

Narendra Modi has been chosen to lead India’s main opposition party’s campaign in next year’s presidential race. The charismatic, controversial chief minister of Gujarat is a rising star in the BJP party, and as India’s election season picks up pace, no doubt we’re going to see more of him.But the “deeply divisive” figure—as the BBC […]

Malls and big box stores are beginning to look like a relic of the past. Retail is getting an overhaul, as companies are figuring out that, by peddling their goods online, they can save on real estate costs and give their customers the flexibility to shop whenever they feel so inclined.Companies like Frank & Oak […]

India and China’s vast numbers of young people trying to find jobs are in trouble, and their experience could be a harbinger of what’s in store for the States. Neither country has enough jobs to employ college graduates, and yet trade jobs abound. Vocational programs are now growing to meet the demands of employers hungry […]

Over at Foreign Policy, Douglas Farah has an interesting piece on Argentina in the wake of its bizarre (if not surprising) plan to boost energy production by effectively encouraging money laundering. Farah tells of the Camporistas, a group of young, influential political advisors and officials led by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s son Maximo. The group, named for […]

Ross Douthat weighs in on the debate over whether California will see “rate shock” under  Obamacare. He notes that the question surrounding health care reform isn’t whether premiums will go up for the young or the old; there will be “losers” in any health care reform, right or left. The question is, rather, how much […]

Those who want locally sourced coffee served with their worship have found a church to their liking in Austin, Texas. Mark Oppenheimer does an excellent profile in the NYT of Vox Veniae, a “post-racial, post-political” evangelical church.  Vox Veniae is experimenting with new ways of reaching a generation that still feels spiritual hunger but thinks the blue model churches […]

At Via Meadia, we’ve long been excited about the possibilities for live video software to fundamentally alter the way we live our lives. The spread of such software enables everything from MOOCs, which allow thousands of students to view lectures simultaneously all over the world, to telecommuting, which allows people to work remotely and avoid the […]

Earlier this week, Democratic Senator Tom Harkin’s proposed some revisions to the “No Child Left Behind Act”. Harkin’s proposal took some modest steps to move responsibility for education from the federal government to the states, but did little to alter the general thrust of the law. Not to be outdone, the Republicans just released a […]

Spain has become the latest European country to slam the brakes on green subsidies. Late last decade, the country drank the green kool-aid and poured billions of dollars into expensive solar and wind energy projects. These investments did their job, and then some: solar and wind farms expanded far past government projections, and the country […]