Qatar, the small but wealthy Gulf emirate, has seen a major political opportunity in the collapse of the old regimes in the Arab world and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is “punching above its weight” at the moment, but it has attracted unfavorable attention from Saudi Arabia—and concern from the West, where Qatar […]

Pretty much everybody understands at some level that the question of jobs is at the heart of America’s politics today. An old world of stable, reasonably well paid jobs in manufacturing (stuff processing) and in corporate or government bureaucracies (information processing) is passing away. What comes next is up in the air, but as things […]

If you want to understand why people are so down on the American biofuel industry, look no further than the ethanol trade relationship between Brazil and the United States. Last year, the US imported 9.6 million barrels of ethanol from Brazil. And yet Brazil imported 2 million barrels from the US.How does that happen, you […]

…make it this excellent and refreshingly evenhanded New Yorker piece by Nathan Heller. It traces the rise of MOOCs at Harvard while carefully examining their many pros and cons, how they fit into the broader higher ed landscape, the roots of cost inflation in the education sector, and much else besides.It’s hard to recommend the multifaceted piece […]

World-renowned music moguls and entrepreneurs Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are getting into another business: higher education. The rapper and producer made a $70 million donation to the University of Southern California to create a degree “that blends business, marketing, product development, design and liberal arts.” The New York Times reports: The details of the four-year program, officially […]

Nawaz Sharif is back. And back with a big enough chunk of parliament that he won’t have to form a coalition government. After a record number of Pakistanis showed up at the polls and dumped the delinquent Pakistan People’s Party out of power, many Pakistanis have rejoiced with hope that their country is on the brink of a new […]

A new Gallup poll reveals small business owners as wary about the Affordable Care Act. Forty-eight percent of the 603 small business respondents think that Obamacare will be “bad for [their] business.” Fifty-two percent said the ACA will reduce the quality of the healthcare they and their employees receive, while 55 percent believe the ACA […]

Depending on who you ask, “hundreds” or “thousands” of people marched on the streets of Kunming, China, today to protest the construction of a chemical plant owned by CNPC, the national oil company. This is the second such protest in the past month, and representatives from many world news organizations were on the scene to […]

There’s a scandal brewing in the Netherlands that could weaken support for the European welfare state. A well-organized crime ring in Bulgaria has been rounding up villagers and putting them on buses to Rotterdam. When they arrive there, they are sent to fill out welfare forms using forged rental contracts to prove that they have […]

China’s unprecedented growth has brought millions out of poverty and made the country a geopolitical heavyweight, but its environment is footing the bill for this growth. Beijing’s citizens are choking on the city’s toxic smog, and the country spends an estimated 5.8 percent of its GDP on health care costs, premature deaths, and material losses […]