In sobering if not surprising news, a new study released Wednesday confirms that Americans are spending more on health care than the rest of the developed world and getting less bang for the buck. The Financial Times reports: In comparison with Australia, Canada, Japan and many western European countries, the US ranks among the worst when […]

Egyptians are quickly losing the hopeful optimism that once fueled the revolution, as the economy deteriorates, dissatisfaction with the Brotherhood government grows, and security is still questionable.A $4.8 billion loan from the IMF depends on President Mohamed Morsi’s willingness to impose austerity measures, a move which could tip the scales into civil disorder, as Reuters reports: With their […]

According to new data by Public Policy Polling, Americans’ dismal view of Congress looks even worse compared to other loathed items: When asked if they have a higher opinion of either Congress or a series of unpleasant or disliked things, voters said they had a higher opinion of root canals (32 for Congress and 56 […]

Henry Nau at the Hoover Institution has written an incisive summary of the opposition to President Obama’s foreign policy coming from the smart rather than the antediluvian wing of the GOP: Obama’s foreign policy is inordinately piecemeal, even picayune. It lacks a vision that draws connections between specific issues, such as terrorism, and the broader American […]

Just when you thought the blue states couldn’t get any bluer, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo moves his state a deeper shade on the color chart. From the NYT: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who spent his first two years in office establishing himself as a fiscal conservative, turned left in his third annual address to the […]

British Prime Minister David Cameron will soon be laying out plans for a referendum of the extent of the UK’s presence in the EU. Obviously President Obama won’t have an official ballot in that referendum, but his administration has already let it be known that America isn’t happy about the possibility of a British withdrawal. According […]

Blue states have borne the brunt of the pension crisis sweeping the country, but red states are feeling the pain too. Louisville’s Courier-Journal reports that the mayors of Kentucky’s two largest cities are calling on Frankfort to overhaul their state’s pension system: Pension costs now eat up about 15 percent of Louisville’s general fund budget—up from […]

American onshoring keeps rolling along, and the latest good news is the boost homegrown manufacturing is getting from big data. Improvements in data collection and analysis have made forward-looking firms more agile and able to react quickly to fluctuations in market demand or supply. So far, the U.S. seems best qualified to take advantage of […]

Western consumers have gotten used to seeing “made in China” printed on many of their daily purchases, but there are many items the Chinese themselves would prefer not to bear that label—baby food, for one: A surge in sales of one of Australia’s most popular brands of infant formula has led to an unusual sight […]

California is already one of the most dysfunctional states in the Union; now it is set to become one of the oldest and most childless as well. According to the WSJ, the state’s population numbers are in steep decline: In 1970, six years after the end of the baby boom, children made up more than one-third […]