The twin bankruptcies of Stockton and San Bernardino have thrust California and its troubled state pension system back into the national spotlight. Since November, Calpers has been fighting tooth and nail to make sure San Bernardino keeps up its pension payments for fear of setting a precedent that troubled cities can use bankruptcy cut back on […]

A sign of creative thinking on the peace process: The FT reports that Washington is preparing a package of economic incentives for Palestinians in the West Bank with the aim of boosting commerce and employment in the territory. The hope is that a more favorable climate for negotiations will emerge if the economic situation improves: […]

India’s GDP growth rate fell to 5 percent in fiscal year 2013, according to the OECD. The WSJ reports: The OECD’s composite leading indicators for January continued to point to acceleration in the U.S., Japan, Germany and China, as well as the euro zone as a whole. But the leading indicators point to sustained weaker […]

For many low-income, disadvantaged students, the distance between high school and university can seem insurmountable, in part because they’re often stuck in failing public schools. Now a new “early college” model can help them bridge the gap. 400 early college high schools across the country offer college-level courses taught by professors, increasing their chances of […]

Dozens of cities and towns in New York are near financial collapse. Now the state Comptroller is implementing an “early intervention mechanism” to help them stave off bankruptcy and reassure investors that it’s still safe to lend to New York municipalities.As in newly bankrupt Stockton, the chief problem is skyrocketing pension costs. The Comptroller’s office found that […]

China can’t be too pleased with North Korea right now. Because of the Norks, the US military is heavily deployed across the Asia-Pacific, protecting American territory and allies against a North Korean attack but also effectively encircling China. B-2 stealth bombers, radar-evading F-22s, aircraft carriers, and various anti-missile and high altitude defense systems have all […]

Making patients more aware of health care prices won’t stop medical spending from bankrupting the US. In the wake of Steven Brill’s now-famous piece on hospital price-gouging, people on all sides are coming to agree that increasing health care price transparency is an important policy goal. But Dr. Peter Ubel argues in The Atlantic that it won’t fix our cost problem: Consider […]

If anyone needed further evidence of Iran’s contempt for the negotiations over its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was happy to provide it yesterday. Speaking on the occasion of National Nuclear Technology Day (a holiday he created several years ago), Ahmadinejad declared that Iran was already a nuclear power and suggested that the world would […]

California legislators want to make it easier to fire bad teachers—and the bill even has the support of the California Teachers Association. The LA Times editorial board has the details: Under the existing system, when teachers fight an attempt to fire them, the matter goes to a review panel made up of an administrative law […]

Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim majority, but the country is also home to black magic and a community of people willing to pay warlocks and witches gobs of money to hex their enemies. Somehow, this belief in the occult is seen as compatible with Islam, but a new proposal seeks to outlaw the practice. […]