The controversy over Ambassador Rice’s nomination for the position of Secretary of State has been the biggest story of the week. Although much of the discussion thus far has regarded her comments following the Benghazi attacks, the real issue is whether Ambassador Rice can succeed as Secretary of State without a strong working relationship with congressional Republicans: Both […]

Things are getting worse in San Bernardino. The city filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, but its financial situation has continued to deteriorate. And now with what promises to be a heated court battle over payments to the state pension fund in the offing, further cuts are likely.Things are getting so bad that at a recent […]

Mohamed Morsi yesterday called for a referendum for December 15 on the controversial draft constitution that has so antagonized Egypt’s liberals. The Financial Times sums up the state of play in Cairo: The new charter reduces the powers of the president and strengthens parliament. However, it shields the military from civilian oversight and allows the army to […]

And speaking of Chinese infrastructure projects, surf on over to The Atlantic and take a gander at this this gem of a photo (h/t Francis Fukuyama): Homeowners Luo Baogen and his wife refused to allow the government to demolish their home in Wenling, Zhejiang province, China, claiming the relocation compensation offered would not be enough to cover the […]

A new paper released by the IMF confirms: China is heavily overinvesting—ten percent or more of GDP—with the cost mostly borne by households. Although this won’t be shocking news to Via Meadia readers, it’s good to see the IMF exploring what might end up being the biggest economic bubble in history. From the paper’s conclusion: […]

Just a few weeks after a high profile, months-long corruption case drew to a close in Brazil, another big one popped out of the woodwork. On Wednesday, a group of Brazilian government officials were charged with taking cash in return for jobs and other political favors. While the new case does not match the scope of the recent […]

The British press stinks, or at least a lot of it does. Sleazy tabloids run wild with reporters hacking cell phones, getting stories under false pretenses and hounding relatives of soccer stars and other pop idols within an inch of their lives. Ghoulish over reporting of personal tragedies like missing children wreak havoc and ruin […]

According to a Reuters estimate, 200,000 Egyptians marched in support of President Morsi and the Islamist-backed proposed constitution for Egypt. Widespread reports yesterday suggest that the opposition mustered tens of thousands of supporters in Cairo yesterday. As there were both pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrations across Egypt and many had no international press observers, it’s not […]

We are kind of old fashioned at Via Meadia: we think a pig, even in green lipstick and wearing a military uniform, is still a pig. Apparently, we would be a bad fit in the Senate.On Thursday the Senate voted to extend the DoD’s unconventional fuels initiative, an oft-criticized program aimed at developing biofuels to power […]

The purported leader of Boko Haram, Abubakr Shekau, appeared in a video released recently urging his followers to wage a global jihad against the US, the UK, Israel, and others, and identifying the Nigerian movement with its “mujahideen brothers.” According to SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based organisation, Abubakar Shekau gave the speech in Arabic in […]