In an interview with an AP journalist yesterday, the president of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq threatened secession—a move that could exacerbate tensions in an already fraught political scene.As Fox News reports, “What threatens the unity of Iraq is dictatorship and authoritarian rule,” Barzani said in a 45-minute interview in his sprawling office outside […]

Every year Gallup surveys Americans about their expectations for retirement. The results for 2012 are in, and they look bleak for defenders of the blue model. The expected retirement age is now 67, a considerable increase from 1996, when Americans expected to kick back and put up their feet once they hit 60. Gallup also […]

Conflict between the two Sudans has escalated over the past few days. John Campbell at the Council on Foreign Relations sheds some light on what’s happening: Last week, Sudan (Khartoum) president al-Bashir escalated his rhetoric against South Sudan (Juba) in the aftermath of the latter’s forces occupying an oil-rich region, Heglig, inside Sudan’s borders. Al-Bashir has characterized […]

While selling his healthcare overhaul, Obama repeatedly reassured skeptics with a promise: If you like your current plan, you can keep it. Some workers may soon find out this isn’t exactly true. As companies, particularly small businesses, face rising healthcare costs under the new law, consultants are beginning to advise them to drop healthcare when […]

One characteristic the blogosphere shares with the legacy media is an endless fascination with itself; increasingly, academics are jumping into the conversation about the nature and the consequence of this dynamic new medium. According to a recent paper by Aaron Shaw (a PhD candidate in sociology at Berkeley) and Yochai Benkler (a Harvard law professor known for his writings on collaboration […]

Here at Via Meadia, California has received considerable attention for the poor handling and shaky finances of its state pension funds. Yet California is hardly alone in these problems, and recent news out of Louisiana suggests it may not even be the worst. Three major public pension funds put money in a fly-by-night enterprise—and now […]

Are the sins of the father being visited upon the son? The Bo Xilai saga swirling through the top echelons of Chinese politics has reached the manicured lawns of Harvard, where Bo’s son, Bo Guagua, is enrolled in the Kennedy School of Government. Guagua has attracted significant media attention of late, most of which has centered […]

Turkey and Iraq are accusing each other of meddling in one another’s internal affairs in a diplomatic spat that could have wide ramifications across the Middle East.Baghdad is supremely unhappy with the warm welcome Turkey gave to Tariq al-Hashemi, a former Iraqi vice president who barely escaped being arrested after Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s government accused him of […]

For decades, China’s rulers have successfully convinced foreigners to pay no attention to the men behind the curtain; now the Bo Xilai saga is tearing down that curtain completely. The latest bombshell comes from the New York Times, which has revealed that Bo ran an extensive wiretapping operation that included top Communist Party officials. Not even President Hu […]

Two weeks ago, North Korea earned the jeers of the world after launching a missile that fell into the sea within 90 seconds. Undeterred, it has continued celebrations of Kim Il-sung’s 100th birthday with a display of massive new missiles loaded on “the largest mobile launch vehicles North Korea has ever unveiled.”Perhaps the spectacle could […]