All of the major countries of the Eurozone, Germany included, posted losses in the fourth quarter of 2012 as the continent slides deeper into recession. This marks the third consecutive quarter in which the European economy shrank, as Reuters reports: Germany contracted by 0.6 percent on the quarter, official data showed, marking its worst performance since the global […]

Four retired Turkish generals were jailed today pending an inquiry into a “coup attempt” in 1997. This is yet another calculated maneuver by Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ensure that the Turkish armed forces are never again able to illegally take over the government. It was a stern reminder of who’s boss. Reuters reports: In […]

Valentine’s Day is upon us, and while many Americans will use the day for romantic chocolate-filled dinners, we would like to inspire Millenials (American and otherwise) to consider using the day for solving their first big challenge as a generation: stopping the crash in global fertility rates.In his book, What to Expect When No One’s […]

The North Koreans aren’t the only people on the divided peninsula bragging about their new weapons. South Korea says their latest cruise missiles are precise enough to target the window of the North Korean leader’s office. Reuters reports: South Korean officials declined to say the exact range of the missile but said it could hit […]

Nobody wants Time magazine. That’s what seems to be emerging from talks between the magazine’s current publisher Time Warner and Meredith, an Iowa-based publisher of magazines aimed mostly at women in the Midwest. The money losing newsweekly used to be the most important magazine in America; under the leadership of its founder Henry Luce, Time […]

This year’s State of the Union address—like most that came before it—was a policy grab bag of sorts. Slate’s Matt Yglesias offered a good roundup of backgrounders for the President’s various proposals. It’s worth spending some time reading through these because, as Yglesias notes, they’re likely to be the general outlines of Democratic Party policy thinking […]

Police and firefighter unions in bankrupt San Bernardino want to sue the city for cutting members’ pay and benefits. Last year the city became the first in California to unilaterally stop paying into the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers), and the unions who represent these pensioners aren’t happy. Since the city’s bankruptcy hearing is still pending, […]

Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left By Alex Berezow and Hank Campbell PublicAffairs, 2012, 320 pp., $26.99 Adam Garfinkle: What are you and your co-author, Hank Campbell, trying to accomplish in your new book? Alex Berezow: We’re both science writers, and we’ve noticed that the media likes to paint […]

Egypt’s feedback loop of civil unrest and economic failure is getting worse. A month after the country’s currency reserves fell by $1.4 billion, an international ratings agency is cutting Egypt’s bond rating: The downgrade was due to the recent escalation of civil unrest in the country, highlighted by violent clashes between protesters and security forces […]

Iran can sometimes be very hard to read, but the announcement that even as talks approach it is installing advanced and more capable centrifuges at its nuclear facility in Natanz doesn’t need much interpreting: Iran isn’t afraid of Barack Obama. The Ayatollahs have looked at the clues, added up the numbers, and come to the […]