South African energy company SASOL is joining the American shale gas revolution with an investment of up to $21 billion to build two new plants in Louisiana. If plans go forward as expected, Louisiana would be home to the first gas-to-liquid plant in America, which transforms natural gas into a liquid fuel form to power vehicles.As the […]

Rhode Island’s blue-on-blue showdown is heating up. Famed litigator David Boies is taking a 96 percent pay cut to represent the state against recalcitrant public sector unions. The New York Times reports: Mr. Boies became involved, he said, because he was convinced that Rhode Island’s pension troubles were just the tip of a $5 trillion […]

Voters in Colorado and Washington have approved marijuana legalization, and polls show national support for it are at an all-time high. But those who think legal pot can quell violent crime in the drug trade are mistaken. The Atlantic explains: The notion that legalizing marijuana will cripple Mexico’s brutal drug cartels has gained steam in […]

After almost every election, you hear that the winning party is on the verge of consolidating a long-term domination of the system. This is particularly true following the reelection of a sitting president. After Bush’s victory in 2004 many on the right gloated that an era of permanent Republican dominance was upon us. Now we’re hearing […]

Not even a week into office and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has announced an ambitious, wide-ranging, and broadly supported plan to reform the country. The FT has details: In a 34-page document called the Pact for Mexico, Mr Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary party (PRI), set out what for many observers is the most ambitious reform […]

Murphy’s law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. It might as well be called Detroit’s Law because it’s a perfect way of describing the city’s fiscal situation. Detroit is currently on track to run out of money at the end of the year. Michigan promised some much needed cash relief, but […]

The full extent of the damage caused by the Libyan afterparty is slowly becoming clear, as bad news from Mali continues to trickle in. Flooded with weapons and veterans from Libya, the northern half of Mali has become a Texas-sized Saharan safe haven for al-Qaeda and affiliates. Newly galvanized young men from across the region are […]

The U.K. joins a growing consensus in favor of natural gas as leaders explore innovative solutions to the recession and dependence on Middle Eastern oil. The British government is set to approve up to 30 gas-fired power stations that will replace coal, nuclear, and older gas plants. Chancellor George Osborne expects this enthusiastic support for new […]

China hasn’t been doing much to win friends lately. On Tuesday, Vietnam denounced China’s claims to the Spratly and Paracel islands, in reaction to Chinese sabotage of oil explorations by a Vietnamese company. Vietnamese leaders are now up in arms, pledging to protect their economic interests in the South China Sea. Reuters has the story: […]

The EU has seemingly had too many “rescue packages” to count, but October’s was different from the rest, containing as its centerpiece a pledge to unify all Eurozone banks under a common supervisory entity. A centralized banking system would allow Europe to recapitalize banks with EU bailout funds and make it more difficult for individual […]