China’s military considers the United States “enemy-in-chief” and, as it has done for decades, maintains a shroud of secrecy around the PLA’s size, capabilities, and intentions. That much is clear from a recent paper written by the PLA’s deputy chief of the general staff, the number two military man in China, for the Study Times, the official […]

The European Parliament just voted down a measure that would have attempted to revive its carbon market, likely dooming it to a slow and undignified death. This was a last-ditch effort to drive the EU’s carbon price back to a level that would incentivize green reforms. And it failed.The EU’s carbon market was the flagship program of […]

Watch out Gucci, you’ve got competition: designers in Asia are beginning to challenge European fashion powerhouses. Bloomberg reports that Asian brands like Courrone and Woo are growing even as traditional companies like Louis Vuitton are facing slowing growth. This is a dramatic shift for a region that has traditionally been known for low-quality manufacturing and illegal […]

As the day dawns on Boston after yesterday’s barbaric, tragic bombing, Iraq too is recovering from a particularly bloody day. The New York Times has the story: In the latest surge of violence, more than 20 attacks around the country on Monday killed close to 50 people and wounded nearly 200. Two schools in Hilla […]

Since yesterday afternoon, Americans have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. We know we’ve been attacked by someone deranged, hate-filled and cowardly, but we don’t know much more than that.The police seem to be following some leads, but either because no one is claiming responsibility or because so many are claiming responsibility we […]

What does it mean for the euro that, on paper at least, Spaniards, Italians, and Cypriots are much wealthier on average than Germans? That’s the question Wolfgang Münchau tackled in a must-read column in the Financial Times, and it’s one that VM readers would do well to spend some time thinking through.Here are the outlines of his […]

How unfair is Social Security going to be on the coming generations? Here’s a report being highlighted by CNN that’s worth looking at: A couple who each earned the average wage during their careers and retired in 1990 would have paid $316,000 in Social Security taxes, but collected $436,000 in benefits, according to data crunched by Eugene […]

New York has just become one of the first states to introduce standardized testing that accords with the Common Core curriculum, a set of state-developed national standards and academic guidelines. The curriculum has been adopted by nearly every state, but the associated tests have not. The New York Times reports on the roll-out in New York: New York […]

Delegates at the California Democratic Party convention overwhelmingly passed a resolution yesterday censuring fellow party members who support school reform and calling groups like Democrats for School Reform a front for Republican and corporate interests. “Let’s be perfectly clear”, the President of the California Teachers Association explained, These organizations are backed by moneyed interests, Republican operatives […]

Have a long commute? You’re more likely to gain weight and die early than your teleworking counterparts. A Swedish social geographer found that those who travel more than 31 miles to work are more likely to die young. For reference, the average commute distance in the US is 25 miles each way. That’s not good. […]