The world is in the middle of an information revolution every bit as large and sweeping as the industrial revolution was in the 19th century. Propelled by new technologies in telecommunications and cloud computing, this burgeoning revolution has the potential to make new products and services more widely available while opening up whole new areas of employment […]

Two Lebanese money-exchange houses have moved millions of dollars in drug money through the US financial system to profit the terrorist organization Hezbollah. The Treasury Department has blacklisted them both and charged Hezbollah, the self-proclaimed protectors of Shia Muslims against the evil US-Israeli menace, of operating like an international drug cartel. The WSJ reports: One […]

Qatar joined France, the UK, and Israel to officially state that Butcher Assad has used chemical weapons during Syria’s civil war, something that the Obama Administration threatened was a “red line.” Blake Hounshell reports for Foreign Policy: “Chemicals? He used chemicals, and there is evidence,” [Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim] Al Thani said, referring to Assad. […]

A huge Argentine agribusiness has just fled the country for Brazil. The FT reports that high inflation and skyrocketing land costs have pushed El Tejar to move to land the company bought in São Paulo: The sharp increase in land rental costs in recent years in Argentina has meant that despite the rise in grain and oilseed […]

Congressional lawmakers and aides are considering exempting themselves from the mandate to enroll in the health care exchanges the ACA sets up. Hill leaders have been holding confidential meetings for months, trying to weigh the PR costs of exempting themselves and their aides from the financial realities the law is forcing them to face. Politico: […]

Students at the City University of New York will have the incredible opportunity next year to learn from one of America’s finest military leaders. David Petraeus, former commander of coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and former director of the CIA, will join the university as a visiting professor of public policy at the Macaulay […]

My previous two essays on the GOP and President Bush touched off an interesting and mostly civil debate on the blogosphere, though if I’d known I was writing within a few days of the opening of the former commander-in-chief’s Presidential Library, I probably would have waited a week. Alas, even the finely tuned news detectors […]

American fuel producers are being forced to blend more and more ethanol into our nation’s gasoline to meet requirements set by the 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Most of this ethanol is produced from corn, a biofuel that isn’t green, starves the world’s poor, and potentially fuels riots. But there’s an even bigger problem with […]

Greece is dredging up some ugly memories in Europe with a new push for German war reparations from World War II. Two weeks ago, a “top-secret” report from the Greek Finance Ministry was leaked that claimed that Germany still owes Greece €162 billion in reparations. The report made waves, but it wasn’t clear whether the […]

Americans who support gun control continue to express shock, disappointment, and disgust at the recent defeat of federal legislation expanding background checks for gun buyers. And at the center of their outrage is President Barack Obama. The WSJ reports: Democratic strategists, lobbyists and some Capitol Hill aides see last week’s defeat of the gun-bill amendments […]