To many on the American Left, Sweden sets a gold standard for public policy. That its strong economic performance is coupled with liberal social programs, government-run healthcare and a “welfare-driven economic model” is often touted as evidence that blue policies can still be successful in the modern era.Yet news from the country’s third-largest city, Malmö, […]

Europe’s financial woes are well documented, but the malaise of the grand European political project has received far less attention. Decades of painstaking diplomacy aimed at uniting the continent into a single political entity have stalled and may even be reversing. At least that’s the view from Beijing.With Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao due to meet […]

Earlier this month Iran met with representatives from six major powers in Istanbul to discuss its nuclear program. The meeting in itself represented progress, as it was the first time Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jaleeli, had met with the group in more than a year. And although little was advanced in the form of concrete resolutions, […]

Kofi Annan’s mediation in Syria has largely failed. The Assad regime continues to flout a tenuous ceasefire, drawing more intense international condemnation. The New York Times is reporting that the rhetoric is heating up: International pressure for a harsher line on Syria escalated Thursday, with the president of France calling the Syrian leader a liar, the American secretary of state moving a […]

Another Democratic governor is distancing himself from the blue model: Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced a plan to shore up the state’s pension system by reducing benefits and increasing contributions and working time by state employees. Quinn’s plan would raise the age at which pensions can be collected by two years to 67, while reducing […]

Mohammad Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, was forced to resign his post at gunpoint in February. Nasheed says that remnants of his predecessor’s thirty-year dictatorial reign are running the government now in collusion with Islamic radicals. The United States and India have begun to work with the new government, saying “dialogue” is the […]

With falling revenues and declining tax bases ripping holes in state budgets from California to Rhode Island, it’s been a bad few years for state governments. But a new report from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government has some heartening news—state tax revenues have risen to $184 billion, higher than the pre-recession levels of […]

Via Meadia has been down on green industries a lot lately, but far be it from us to hide news that plays against type: Over in Israel’s Arava Desert, where the sun shines strongly almost every day of the year, one solar project might be heading for the big time. After more than five years […]

The wave of international criticism against North Korea’s recent failed missile launch, and the international jitters over a possible new nuclear test haven’t fazed the DPRK’s best friend.As Reuters reports, China’s President Hu Jintao has vowed to stand by his man in Pyongyang. “The traditional friendship between China and North Korea was personally created and […]

The bad news from Europe is coming on so many levels that it is hard to avoid the feeling that something fundamental has changed in what remains the largest economic bloc — and largest collection of democracies — in the world.From France come the election results, bad news in three different ways. First, there is […]