When commended for being a “pillar of the Church,” Winston Churchill supposedly once replied that he was “not a pillar of the Church but a flying buttress, supporting it from the outside.” There are more and more Americans taking this Churchillian approach to religion. A new Gallup poll found that 75 percent of Americans believe […]

The “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) law may soon be left behind itself. One of the perennial criticisms of Bush’s signature education reform is that it is too rigid and incentivizes teachers to “teach to the test” rather than tailor their curriculum towards the individual needs of students.Senator Tom Harkin has just proposed a bill […]

The Death of Corporate Reputation: How Integrity Has Been Destroyed on Wall Street by Jonathan R. Macey (FT Press, 304 pp., $39.99) AG: So what’s the basic thesis of your book, and what motivated you to write it?   Jonathan R. Macey: The basic thesis of the book is that the business model of firms […]

On May 29 thousands gathered on the shores of the Golden Horn in the historic neighborhood of Balat to celebrate the 560th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. It was the kind of early summer Istanbul evening that gives a slight taste of the thick humidity to come in June and July. The city’s […]

Amazon is expanding its home delivery grocery service to Los Angeles after six years of operation in Seattle. This expansion, the first of many expected to come, marks a significant step forward for online shopping. We’ve already discussed how the growth of home delivery services like this can save people time and money while reducing emissions and greening the […]

Brussels and Beijing are embroiled in a full-on trade war, and China is ready to hit the European Union where it hurts: its wineries. China is accusing French winemakers of dumping their wares in the Chinese market at prices below what it would take to make a profit. In reality, this move has little to […]

Thanks to a spate of reforms, Myanmar is hosting the 2013 the World Economic Forum on East Asia, which begins today. Burma’s position as host highlights how quickly it has been brought into the good graces of the international community and the West; only two years ago, it was an international pariah.Burma’s democratic revolution, however, still coexists […]

When Edward Morse talks, the energy world listens. In February, the Citigroup commodities guru made waves in the energy community when he predicted the combined  US and Canadian oil supplies would outstrip demand in five years, in large part because of the American shale revolution.He’s still bullish on shale’s transformative power; in fact, he’s taking it to […]

Today brought more discouraging news from Egypt, where a criminal court convicted 43 local and foreign NGO employees of spreading unrest in the country. The groups, which include the congressionally funded International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, have had their assets seized by the Egyptian government. The vast majority of foreign aid workers, including […]

President Obama is shaking up his national security team: Tom Donilon is out, Susan Rice and Samantha Power are in. Mark Landler has a good story in the Times; we have four points in particular to note about this development.First, President Obama is now playing the national security game with his people. In his first term he […]