Violent protests erupted in Cairo and several other large Egyptian cities today, a day after President Morsi claimed what amounts to an almost absolute set of powers. According to the first reports, offices of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political offshoot the Freedom and Justice Party in Cairo, Ismailia, Port Said, and Suez have been […]

And finally, the classic Thanksgiving hymn, “We Gather Together”.Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Here’s another great one for Thanksgiving: the black gospel version of a hymn popularized by Ira Sankey, the singer who worked with the great 19th century evangelist D.L. Moody.Lyrics: When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it […]

As the VM team takes a breather and gets together with family and loved ones, we’ve collected some songs which we think are expressive of the holiday.First up, a performance of part of a Bach cantata that features the music from a famous hymn: “Now Thank We All Our God.” Lyrics below.Now thank we all our God, […]

Argentina’s feisty president is not giving thanks today. Not only were many of the country’s cities closed down earlier this week by unionists unhappy with the increasingly discredited economic policies of the embattled Kirchner government; US courts are pushing the country to the verge of yet another sovereign default.The problem of Argentina is that creditors […]

Among the many blessings I’m counting this Thanksgiving: the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania chose me this year to receive their Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Service. Both of my parents, both still with us in their eighties, were on hand to hear my speech at the award banquet. The FPRI, whose scholars […]

The Ames Straw Poll, a nonbinding “election” held by the Republican Party about one year prior to the main event, is often seen as the official kickoff to election season, when the various Republican candidates get their first chance to test their organizational strength and public support. The entire affair receives extensive media coverage and […]

Fears that California governor Jerry Brown and the new Democratic supermajority will go on a spending and tax-raising spree may be overblown. Brown has called for “prudence” in tax policy, and state leaders have deflected renewed pressure from public unions to reverse spending cuts.  There’s still plenty to worry about, however, as The Economist reports: Prop […]

China’s 18th Party Congress may seem like the usual group of garden-variety bureaucrats, but it’s newly diversified in at least one respect: For the first time in ten years, the Politburo Standing Committee isn’t entirely composed of engineers. Many of the current crop of party leaders were educated in the social sciences and humanities, and […]

Mexico’s ongoing manufacturing revolution and booming international investment have been ushered along in no small part by its car industry. An article in the WSJ shows how far it has come: Six years ago, Mexico was the world’s ninth largest exporter of cars. Today the country is ranked fourth—behind Germany, Japan and South Korea—with exports expected to […]