Egypt’s steady slide toward economic ruin continues, as the Economist reports. Read the whole thing to absorb the magazine’s grim outlook for Egypt’s economy, and then consider an interesting question: What happens if the Islamists fail?Under Nasser, Egypt’s secular nationalists failed: they could neither build a modern economy nor defeat Israel. Over the past 200 years Egypt […]

One of the reasons we favored faster action on Syria in the past two years is that a sectarian war across the Fertile Crescent, perhaps pouring into Iran itself, would advance no US interests that we can think of, quite apart from the considerable costs in human life. Well, it looks like we’re on the […]

More evidence is in that we can make earthquakes now. Earlier this week researchers tied wastewater disposal in oil and gas production to the largest earthquake in Oklahoma’s history. Bloomberg reports: The earthquake near Prague, Oklahoma, on Nov. 6, 2011, was the state’s biggest and may be the largest linked to the injection of water from drilling […]

The flames of intolerance spreading to new areas of Burma are a reminder that the country’s “democratic reform” period is not a happy human rights tale.Just a couple weeks ago the town of Meikhtila was a peaceful, diverse place, where people calmly went about their lives without paying special attention to whether their neighbor was Buddhist or […]

Walmart is starting to look like a Soviet-era retailer. The prices are still low, but shelves are going empty for months while products sit unwrapped in storage, lines are interminable, and no one is around to help.Bloomberg reports that in-store service problems for the world’s third-largest corporation are so bad that people are willing to […]

Indiana’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the state’s voucher program, giving a serious boost to education reform. The program had come under attack for diverting public money to religious education, but the court rejected this argument in a unanimous decision. The WSJ reports: The judges, upholding an earlier trial-court decision, ruled that as long as the […]

China has agreed to buy 24 Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and four Lada-class submarines from Russia, state media reported yesterday. This is China’s biggest arms purchase in a decade and a signal to neighboring countries that the People’s Liberation Army means business.The large purchase will bulk up China’s naval and air forces at a tense time. […]

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted yesterday that Obamacare will raise the price of insurance premiums for some Americans. Unsurprisingly, young people will get the shaft, especially young men. WSJ: The secretary’s remarks are among the first direct statements from federal officials that people who have skimpy health plans right now could face higher premiums for plans that are […]

The US is gaining one of Britain’s brightest political stars. David Milliband, former UK Foreign Secretary and head of Tony Blair’s policy unit, is stepping down from Parliament to run the International Rescue Committee, a New York-based humanitarian organization. Milliband’s move continues a long pattern of leaders in both countries having close ties across the oceans.Business, […]

After threatening to incinerate the US, now the Norks are refusing to pick up the phone. Reuters reports on the escalating bluster from Pyongyang: Reclusive North Korea is to cut the last channel of communications with the South because war could break out at “any moment”, it said on Wednesday, days after warning the United States and South Korea of nuclear attack.It is […]