The pension crisis and the dying Fordist economy have joined forces to sink another US city. Looking to plug a massive hole in its budget the city of Flint, Michigan, went for the nuclear option, firing 20 percent of its employees and restructuring its public services through a mix of cutbacks and outsourcing. The plan worked: […]

Are NIMBYs killing the American city?All over the country, associations of concerned citizens are imposing moratoriums on liquor licenses for new bars and restaurants in their area, reports Matt Yglesias at Slate. These groups generally think they’re doing themselves and their neighborhoods a favor by restoring some decency and sanity to communities already polluted by […]

A high-level US congressional delegation visited Narendra Modi in India today; it’s a sign that Washington is warming to the politician, who is expected to make a run for Prime Minister next year. It was the highest level visit by American lawmakers since anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002, in which hundreds died. Modi is […]

American public education may be in crisis, but teachers are fairly happy with their lives, according to a new Gallup poll: The nation’s teachers score higher than almost all occupational groups on life evaluations plus four of the other five areas of wellbeing—including emotional health, healthy behaviors, basic access, and physical health. In life evaluations, […]

Plenty of people have already chimed in about whether Google Glass, the high-tech mobile camera, video, and computing device welded to a pair of glasses, is an innovative work of staggering genius or, well, kinda dorky-looking, but we’re struck by something else entirely: Google’s decision to produce the device in Silicon Valley, USA. The FT reports: The […]

Millennials may be the first generation in American history to make less on average than their parents. “The average net worth of someone 29 to 37 has fallen 21 percent since 1983; the average net worth of someone 56 to 64 has more than doubled,” says this Urban Institute study. Meanwhile, average incomes for the 25–34 demographic […]

Obamacare will cost some restaurant chains much less than they predicted—in the case of Wendy’s, about 80 percent less than its original estimate. But dig a little deeper and you see how this is not an unqualified boon. Wendy’s and other companies will enjoy these savings because more workers than originally expected may choose to opt out […]

The social media king is extending his domain into politics. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is hooking up with a slew of tech titans to launch a political advocacy group focusing on education and immigration reform. The WSJ reports: Mr. Zuckerberg is working on launching the group along with close friend Joe Green, who was one […]

 Egypt’s steady slide toward economic ruin continues, as the Economist reports. Read the whole thing to absorb the magazine’s grim outlook for Egypt’s economy, and then consider an interesting question: What happens if the Islamists fail?Under Nasser, Egypt’s secular nationalists failed: they could neither build a modern economy nor defeat Israel. Over the past 200 years Egypt […]

One of the reasons we favored faster action on Syria in the past two years is that a sectarian war across the Fertile Crescent, perhaps pouring into Iran itself, would advance no US interests that we can think of, quite apart from the considerable costs in human life. Well, it looks like we’re on the […]