The scandal surrounding pre-recession banking industry practices continues to unfold. According to the FT, U.S. banks reached settlements over past fraud and abuse that will cost them more than $20 billion. Bank of America will pay Fannie Mae $11.6 billion in reparation for the bad loans it sold to the mortgage company, and it also joins nine other […]

The average doctor can spend almost 11 percent of his or her career waiting for malpractice cases to be decided, according to a study printed in the January issue of Health Affairs. For some specialists, nearly a third of their careers can be spent in malpractice limbo. The results aren’t pretty: The length of time […]

A US and EU bilateral transatlantic trade deal is moving slowly into view as both sides prepare for the beginning of formal negotiations. The mobilization towards an agreement reflects the changing landscape of global trade. If a deal emerges, it will allow the U.S. and EU more leeway to set the rules of the road […]

State censorship of one of China’s most liberal newspapers has sparked escalating protests over the past few days in the southern province of Guangdong. An editorial written late last week in the Southern Weekly urging China’s new leaders to pursue political reforms was replaced by the newspaper’s censor with a piece lauding the ruling party’s achievements. […]

Regular readers are already well aware that we are not optimistic about Europe’s economic future, and this CNN Money report throws more fuel on the fire. Newly-released statistics show that the combined Eurozone jobless rate reached 11.8 in November, a record high: Eurostat data published Tuesday showed unemployment in the 17-nation eurozone hit a record high […]

A study released yesterday found that the development of the Canadian oil sands has increased the level of carcinogens in nearby lakes beyond natural levels. Greens everywhere are likely choking on their own outrage, and at first glance they appear to have cause. The New York Times reports: Layers of the sediment were tested for deposits […]

This may surprise “small government” conservative critics of President Obama, but under his watch more public sector jobs have been cut than in any comparable period over the past sixty years. The New York Times reports: The December jobs figures out today indicate that there were 725,000 more jobs in the private sector than at the […]

Two Indian soldiers were killed by Pakistani troops today, two days after one Pakistani was shot and killed in the first cross-border skirmish in Kashmir in years. Reuters reports on today’s incident: “The body of one of the soldiers was found ‘badly mutilated’ in a forested area of the Himalayan territory on the side controlled […]

The early successes of online ed ventures like Coursera and Udacity up to this point have left one important question unanswered: When (and how) should they make money, much less turn a profit? For all their achievements, measured in terms of a growing user base and rising enthusiasm, no venture has yet been able to […]

The United States has expressed concerns in the past about Iran’s reach in the Western Hemisphere, especially over the alleged 2011 plot to kill Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir on U.S. soil. Now President Obama has signed into law the Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act: The law was the White House’s most public strategy to date […]