China is winning the global race to the bottom in solar panels by propping up its producers, allowing them to dump their products on the world market at very cheap prices. But it isn’t just Beijing pumping money into green energy producers; the World Bank is financing Chinese firms as well. The Washington Post reports: Bank programs […]

If there’s a consensus among observers of what’s happening in Afghanistan (and VM has heard these views from Indian and European observers as well as those in the US), it is this: the long NATO presence has really changed the country in some important ways. Economic development, construction of road networks, educational progress and much […]

France’s socialists took their first real step toward reforming the country’s pension system yesterday. After months of pressure from EU leaders to shore up the finances of the struggling pension system, the lower house of the French Parliament narrowly passed President Hollande’s reform, which increases the amount that public employees contribute to their pensions without […]

Facing sectarian violence and a collapsing state, the Central African Republic (CAR) is soliciting intervention from its former colonial master. In March, a coup led by the Muslim Seleka rebel group removed President François Bozizé from office. Since then, the predominately Christian country has seen intense, armed conflict between Muslim rebels and Christian militias. With […]

On Monday Ezra Klein called the magnitude of the ACA’s rollout failure “stunning”; now Daily Kos contributor Tirge Caps is piling on. He’s furious that his insurance prices will increase under the ACA: My wife and I just got our updates from Kaiser telling us what our 2014 rates will be. Her monthly has been $168 […]

Europe may see itself as the globe’s green paragon, but its energy policies are a mess bordering on a disaster. Pushing through wind and solar energy while snubbing its own shale resources has driven electricity prices up and threatened an already sluggish recovery. The FT reports: “It’s fine being very, very green, but not if you’re interested […]

As the world focuses on places like Syria and Iran—if not also the debt limit/shutdown fiasco on Capitol Hill—sectarian violence continues to tear Iraq apart. In the past two days, as many as 40 people have been killed in at least eight separate attacks. On Monday, a wave of simultaneous bombings killed more than 30 people in Shia-dominated areas […]

A group of California Mayors, most of them Democrats, are going on an offensive against the state’s public unions with a new ballot measure, the “Pension Reform Act of 2014.” The measure would give local officials considerably more power to cut the pension benefits of public sector workers going forward, although all benefits earned thus […]

If this blog had a political rather than religious focus, I would now link to the online bulletin of the University of Papua New Guinea, specifically the proceedings of its recent conference entitled “Is the United States Ready for Democracy?” Although the conference was meticulously fair in presenting different points of view (thus living up […]

The fact that the US is leaving Afghanistan as quickly as possible is unlikely to encourage the Taliban to make any concessions. We’re losing influence there because others have realized they can just wait us out. The AP reports: The secretive leader of the Afghan Taliban pledged on Monday that his followers will keep fighting if […]