Can Egypt turn the corner? Ashraf Swelam, currently the senior adviser to the Egyptian National Competitiveness Council and previously an adviser to presidential candidate Amr Moussa, thinks so. Writing in the FT, he points to Mohammed Morsi’s inability to transform Egypt’s economy from a rent-seeking, clientilist model to a more broadly inclusive, entrepreneurial one. Morsi’s mistake, he says, […]

For the first time in a decade, California is expecting a budget surplus. Governor Jerry Brown has a plan for this extra $1.1 billion: Put it all into a reserve fund, lock it up, and throw away the key. “Everybody wants to see more spending—that’s what this place is, it’s a big spending machine,” said […]

Up to one-third of independently practicing physicians in the US may soon stop using health insurance as we have come to think of it. Kaiser Health News reports on attempts by health care practices to change how they do business as a result of shifting industry patterns, the uncertainty created by the ACA, and the public pressure on them to […]

A new battleground opened in Asia’s Game of Thrones today when the Arctic Council, an organization of the eight countries adjacent to the Arctic region, agreed to admit observer states, including five from Asia: China, South Korea, India, Japan, and Singapore.“There is nothing that should unite quite like our concerns for both the promises and the […]

Georgia Tech announced yesterday that it is teaming up with Udacity, one of the leading providers of massively open online education, to offer a full graduate program in computer science. For a mere $7,000 dollars—or 1/6 the cost of the equivalent program offered on campus—students who meet the prerequisites can fulfill the requirements of a master’s degree […]

Good news for fans of salt: a new study has found that there are no health benefits to cutting down on salt. Though national dietary guidelines have set recommended salt levels for many Americans at just half a teaspoon a day, levels that low can actually increase the risk of heart attack. The NYT reports: [T]he new […]

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is sending an unusual message to investors: His state’s bonds may be no good. NJ.com reports that potential investors have been informed that in the future New Jersey may not make its required pension payments, which are estimated to explode from $1.7 billion next year to about $5.5 billion in […]

The French Ministry of Culture has released a letter co-signed by 14 European culture ministers stating that television and audiovisual production must be excluded from any EU-US free trade talks. Here’s an excerpt from French cultural minister Aurélie Filippetti’s passionate cri de coeur on behalf of European culture: While the [European] union and its member states have […]

The story of the amateur-seeming American spy caught by Russian agents in Moscow continues to bewilder the media today. Why, for example, was the American “spy,” identified as Ryan C. Fogle, outfitted with a map, compass, two ill-fitting wigs, dark sunglasses, and an old-model Nokia phone? These are decidedly un-21st-century spy tools.Nevertheless the incident, for all […]

The good news is that the Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that deficits will shrink drastically next year and continue to do so for the two years following. The government will add $642 billion to the debt in 2013, $560 billion in 2014, and $378 in 2015. The bad news is that they also see […]