After the Soviet Union collapsed, merry western observers expected democracy to burst out across newly liberated Russia. Twenty disappointing years later, this optimism has all but disappeared, and few now expect a democratic transition is in the offing.We received a crude reminder of this on Thursday when Sergei Filin, the artistic director of Moscow’s famous Bolshoi Theater’s […]

There’s more shale oil in California’s Monterey formation than in the rest of the country combined. More than 15 billion barrels of oil are locked in shale deposits underground, and the new drilling techniques that have kicked off America’s energy revolution elsewhere in America should make this bounty available for the first time.This is encouraging news […]

Louisiana has worked hard to earn its reputation as one of the most corrupt states in the nation. On Friday, former mayor Ray Nagin, who ran the city during the Katrina disaster, was indicted on 21 charges of bribery, money laundering, and other corruption offenses, adding his name to the long list of Louisiana politicians […]

The oil rich desert kingdoms of Arabia are turning to the sun for fresh water. Arid Arab states currently use oil (which they have plenty of) to desalinate water (which they have practically none of). This is expensive, so the oil states are looking to use solar energy instead of oil. The Financial Times has […]

The era of big government might already be over, at least as far as employment in the Washington, DC area is concerned. In 2012 the health care industry replaced the federal government and its contractors as the primary driver of job growth in DC: Major contracting firms Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Computer Sciences Corp. […]

A comedian convicted of manslaughter, a technocrat, a populist sleazeball, a leftist—these are the leading characters in a fascinating Italian election season just a month before the vote.It’s a closer race than you would expect. Seventy-six-year-old Silvio “Bunga Bunga” Berlusconi, ousted by the technocrat “Mediocre Mario” Monti as prime minister in 2011, is defying accusations of mafia […]

How the tables have turned. Great Britain is now courting Australia, its old cast-off colony, for strategic assistance in Asia. The FT reports that the two countries are set to sign a wide-ranging defense treaty, boosting the UK’s global profile as it sets its sights beyond Europe in the 21st-century geopolitical theater: Owing to its […]

With another showdown on the debt ceiling looming, CEOs from America’s biggest companies have given the White House and Congress a series of proposals for entitlement reform, some of which are familiar by now: As well as proposing rises in the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 and for Social Security from 67, the BRT […]

Forget about global carbon treaties; greens can’t even manage to pick the “low-hanging fruit.” While alternative energy is a kind of holy grail, reaping savings from energy efficiency is supposed to be relatively easy. In 2011 the Obama administration spent $4 billion on the construction of energy efficient buildings to “create tens of thousands of […]

After pension reform went down in flames last week, Illinois moved to Plan B: war on the young. Governor Pat Quinn’s administration claims that the upcoming budget will include major cutbacks on state services to make room for a $1 billion increase in pension spending. Most notably, education spending will decrease by $400 million, which would make […]