Readers who want a better grasp of the major structural flaws in American health care should get to know David Goldhill. Goldhill first made waves with “How American Healthcare Killed My Father,” a 2009 article in The Atlantic that questioned the wisdom of funding health care through an insurance payment mechanism. He later published a […]

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits Washington this week, and the Financial Times has a good piece on the complicated political and economic currents affecting his agenda: Mr Abe’s meeting with Barack Obama, the US president, on Friday is expected to focus on economic issues and, as ever, the US-Japan military alliance, cornerstone of Asia’s […]

Ahead of Obama’s first trip to the Jewish state as President, a famous peace process dove has joined Israel’s new government. Hatnuah leader Tzipi Livni, who campaigned on reviving peace talks and unseating Netanyahu, is Israel’s new Justice Minister and head of future peace talks with the Palestinians. The FT reports: The appointment of the […]

Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. has pleaded guilty to using political campaign funds to support a lavish lifestyle. Between 2005 and 2012, Jackson Jr. and his wife conspired to siphon off an impressive $750,000. The Chicago Tribune reports: Prosecutors said $60,000 was spent on restaurants, nightclubs and lounges; $31,700 on personal airfare; $16,000 on sports clubs […]

China has categorically denied that its military is engaged in hacking activities, as detailed in a report released yesterday. “Chinese military forces have never supported any hacking activities,” Geng Yansheng, a spokesman for China’s Defense Ministry, retorted at a press briefing in Beijing today.A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry added to this retort by blaming the U.S. […]

The field of competitors for this year’s best foreign affairs book has just narrowed, as Foreign Policy has released the short list of the five books still in the running for the Lionel Gelber Prize. As we’ve previously reported, this year I was privileged to be on the jury that chooses the winning book, and I would recommend every single one of […]

Business lending has shot upward dramatically over the past few months, and many businesses report that banks are now competing to hand out loans, often at very generous rates. This is a sharp reversal from the climate of the past three years, in which lending was down and banks were constantly berated by analysts for […]

Researchers now claim that brain scans can indicate your politics: A team of political scientists and neuroscientists has shown that liberals and conservatives use different parts of the brain when they make risky decisions, and these regions can be used to predict which political party a person prefers.Democrats showed significantly greater activity in the left […]

Here’s a new product that could send a shiver down the spine of editors across the country: a new app called Drafts. Billed as the “Uber for Writing”, here’s how the founder describes the service: One constant I’ve recognized in my writing is how much feedback I like to have. I’ll write an email, and […]

The developing world has surpassed the developed world in the use of productivity-boosting genetically modified crops. The Financial Times reports that 2012 was the first year in which more than half of the world’s GMO crop areas were in developing countries.Even Cuba and Sudan are getting in on the act. Better news yet, countries like Brazil aren’t just […]