As Ukraine prepares for a hugely important vote on a free trade deal with the EU later this month, it is becoming more defiant toward its former Soviet master. Kiev has long sought to reduce its dependence on expensive Russian natural gas, and as of last Friday Ukraine’s state-owned gas firm has ceased importing gas […]

Good news from Illinois is hard to come by these days, either at the state or municipal level. CNBC reports today that the state’s nerve center is continuing its downward slide: Fitch has downgraded Chicago’s bond ratings, citing poor economic growth and total inertia on its union pension liabilities: The credit ratings agency said it […]

Venezuelans are flocking to electronics stores ahead of the Christmas season after Nicolás Maduro’s government accused several retailers of unjustifiably hiking prices and instituted a “fair price” policy.With inflation running at 54 percent, people are understandably eager for a good deal. But the enthusiasm got out of hand in Valencia on Sunday, as shopping turned […]

How can a college survive when the students stop coming? That’s the question facing a number of mid-level private schools in the US, which are facing enrollment declines unlike any they have seen in recent years. For the past few decades, enrollment at most private colleges has generally risen or remained flat, but as the WSJ reports, […]

Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, secretly runs a financial empire that would give the Shah a run for his money. The business interests of Khamenei’s little-known organization, called Setad, include a dizzying array of properties, oil and gas holdings, telecommunications, even ostrich farming. Reuters estimates that Setad oversees assets worth $95 billion.The first part […]

It’s that time of year again: the time when green policy wonks up their personal carbon footprints by flying from all over the world to a central location to pat one another on the back for acknowledging that climate change is, by all accounts, happening. This year, delegates are dithering in Warsaw, hoping to “advance […]

The demographic problem facing the industrialized world isn’t just about empty cribs and the empty treasuries when there aren’t enough young workers to pay the retirement and health benefits their parents and grandparents expect. It’s also about quality of life. The consumer society is eating its young; people who live in the most affluent societies […]

This week’s essay looked at the partial, temporary agreement between Iran and the six major powers that may be taking shape: VM is not ready to express a decisive judgment on an as-yet unfinished agreement whose details have neither been hammered out or made public. We don’t want Iran to get a bomb, and we […]

Mullah Fazlullah, or Mullah Radio as he is popularly known for his sermons broadcast on the airwaves, was selected as the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban after a drone strike killed his predecessor Hakimullah Mehsud last week. Time reports: Fazlullah, who is about 39, has a fearsome reputation. Between 2007 and 2009, he became the […]

LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 6: A TSA officer wipes her eyes as an honor guard escorts a U.S. National Honors Flag in a ceremony to memorialize TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez, who was fatally shot at Los Angeles International Airport, on November 6, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. The flag was escorted from a Depository […]