Japan is contemplating a move in the Great Game that might make the recent Scarborough Shoal quarrel between China and the Philippines look like a sideshow. Nationalist rumblings in China and Japan have set off a contest over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea—a resource-rich string of rocks under Japanese administration. The central government […]

When Australia’s Treasurer, Wayne Swan, heads to Beijing next week he’s expected to ink a deal to make the Australian dollar directly convertible with the Chinese yuan. If successful, Australia would become only the third country to negotiate such a deal, joining Japan and New Zealand.Direct conversion reduces costs for importers and exporters by obviating the cumbersome […]

Fighting in Jos, the strife-torn Plateau province in central Nigeria, has killed up to 100 people, reports the Financial Times. As is usually but not inevitably the case, one side in the latest round of bloodshed was Christian, the other side Muslim. Plateau state is where the predominantly Muslim north and the mostly Christian south […]

The West has lost it big time, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin told a meeting of Russia’s ambassadors from around the world visiting Moscow for consultations. “Domestic socio-economic problems that have become worse in industrialized countries as a result of the (economic) crisis are weakening the dominant role of the so-called historical West,” Putin told Russia’s […]

Joe Klein, in a recent column about his visit with student leaders in Indiana, briefly touched on the potential of online education at the high school level. Interviewing a group of impressive students at the Girls State leadership program, Klein heard firsthand their enthusiasm for online courses: Morgan was one of the three who were […]

Another day, another several dozen dead in Iraq. Americans are doing their best not to think about the violence there. We are tired of news from the country. Especially bad news. And we are immensely relieved that American soldiers are no longer involved.But to understand the turmoil sweeping the Middle East we have to keep […]

The Chinese economy can’t seem to catch a break these days. Two years ago, analysts—along with the Chinese government—were concerned about overheating and runaway inflation. For the past couple years, there’s been an equal but opposite worry that China has reached the beginning of the end of the long period of rapid growth.Via Meadia is […]

Another day, another eurozone summit. With European finance ministers set to gather in Brussels to fill in the details of last month’s bailout agreement for Spanish banks, nervous investors have already signaled their pessimism, pushing Spanish bond yields above the danger zone of 7 percent. (In stark contrast, German bond yields fell into negative territory; investors, […]

When we last left our friends at the United Nations, they were deputizing war criminal Robert Mugabe as an envoy for tourism after trying to hand Mt. Rushmore back to the Native Americans and ban Dante from schools, among other exploits. Although we at Via Meadia have since been preoccupied by other pressing matters, the […]

By this point, European summits have lost nearly all their credibility. Nearly two years of last-minute rescue plans that quickly flop have eroded the public’s confidence in Europe’s leaders and their ability to make tough decisions. But last month’s rescue package for Spanish and Italian bonds had many, Via Meadia included, convinced that this time […]