In Brazil, a major corruption scandal is coming to a close as 20 of 38 defendants, mostly government officials, have been convicted for their involvement in in a vote-buying scheme. The convictions go as high up as former presidential chief of staff José Dirceu de Oliveira e Silva, who was convicted Tuesday of organizing the […]

The vice presidency was, said the first man to fill the position, the most insignificant office humanity had ever devised. It was another vice president who compared it to what, in a gentler day, the press called a pitcherful of warm spit.Tonight’s debate more or less lived up to the office. The current pitcherful, Biden, […]

A civilian Airbus A320 flying from Moscow to Damascus was forced to land in Ankara by Turkish F-16 fighter jets on Wednesday, under suspicions the plane was carrying military equipment to aid the Assad regime. Turkey says the plane carried military communications gear and missile parts, which both Russia and Syria deny. The plane’s 17 […]

Greg Scoblete at RCW takes us to task for advocating arming a faction among the Syrian militia as an advisable course of action. This is a common lament, both among pro-interventionist Western commentators and among Syrian rebel forces themselves. But how true is it? Let’s presume the U.S. arms the rebels – but only the […]

The smoke surrounding the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi has still not cleared, though it has been almost a month since our ambassador and three other Americans were murdered there. Yesterday’s hearing in Washington provided more heat than light, which is no surprise given that we are less than a month from a national election.But […]

Over at Marginal Revolution, blogger-professors Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok have created an online education platform, Marginal Revolution University. MRU currently offers only one course, in development economics, but plans to offer more as time goes on.Earlier this week, Reason.tv sat down with Tabarrok to discuss the new course, the higher-education bubble, and the impact of online education: […]

South Africa may be losing its reputation as the safest and most profitable Sub-Saharan country for investors. The recent mining strikes and Moody’s subsequent credit downgrade have damaged South Africa’s economic outlook and forced investors to look elsewhere in the region.The government’s inability to respond effectively to the strikes reflects a deeper institutional problem within the ruling party, as the FT […]

Following Romney’s strong debate performance last week, political analysts have been working overtime trying to explain his boost in the polls. What did Romney say or do to pull voters away from the President? The popular theory is that Romney successfully tacked to the center, winning over moderate voters leery of his more conservative positions.But one chart […]

Occupy Wall Street’s emergence last fall was billed as the Left’s answer to the Tea Party’s right-wing populism. Barely a year on, the former is dead and buried, while the latter, nearly two years older, is going strong. It’s doing particularly well in Kansas, where the Financial Times reports that its candidates are poised to push […]

Last week, Angela Merkel visited Greece in a show of friendship to assure Greeks that Germany isn’t as hard-hearted as they think. This week, Greece got a different message when Eurozone finance ministers announced they are giving Greece until October 18—ten days—to implement austerity measures. The latest collection of cuts is a prerequisite for a […]