Education reform ideas are a dime a dozen these days. Yet few of them have been more exciting or had more potential than online education, which promises to make education both cheaper and more accessible to students. Programs like MITx have already begun to offer courses by some of the nation’s leading professors in math […]

Are American and European sanctions on Iran’s oil industry working too well? That’s the conclusion reached by the Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES). The widely-respected think-tank estimates Iran will earn $56 billion in oil revenue this year, it’s third-highest level ever. In line with estimates from other analysts, the CGES predicts Iran’s oil export volume […]

Welfare schemes in corrupt countries rarely operate as advertised. Politicians steal money meant to go to the poor, or divert it to party supporters. But one program seems to be working in Pakistan, and that’s very good news. From the AP: The Benazir Income Support Programme is modeled on similar efforts in Africa and South […]

Over and over again, Team Obama promised that green industries would create millions of jobs after he took office. His administration earmarked billions of dollars for investment in “clean” industry. But no matter how you define a “green” job, the numbers are falling far short of millions of jobs, to say the least. Reuters reports: The […]

The Egyptian liberals who played a big part in the insurrection that toppled Hosni Mubarak now find themselves marginalized, pushed into a minor role in parliament and reluctantly withdrawing from the electoral commission.A similar situation has befallen Syria’s liberal, mostly peaceful protesters, who led last summer’s protest marches but have since been sidelined by the […]

One of the signs that the blue model is fading away is that individuals are increasingly taking responsibility for their own employment and livelihood, at the expense of the large bureaucracies that currently dominate the marketplace. The same process is underway in health care, albeit at a slower pace.One new development, however, may speed things […]

The Bo Xilai saga gripping China is now making waves in London as well. According to Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times, the city’s tabloids are exhibiting an unprecedented level of interest in Chinese politics, splashing the story across their front pages: Of course it is not so much the power struggle at the top […]

The anti-Semitic tide continues to rise across Europe, from France to Sweden to Hungary. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Josef Joffe, the sharp editor of Die Zeit, deconstructs a German example: the recent ravings of Nobel Laureate Günter Grass. Joffe first recaps the sordid story: Just before Easter this year, Mr. Grass launched a […]

As the diplomatic imbroglio between China and the Philippines over disputed islands in the South China Sea continues, Beijing is facing another territorial clash over another set of islands, this time with Japan. The group of islands, located in the East China Sea, are held by a private Japanese owner. The Japanese government has rented […]

TS Eliot was right, if you are a high school senior: April is the cruelest month.This is the time of year when most college acceptances and rejections go out, the time of year when high school students all over the country worry about whether their incoming mail is fat (stuffed with information and forms for […]