Combined intervention by the world’s central banks and an open door policy by the ECB to European banks wanting to borrow lots of money fast calmed the world’s markets this month.  We are no longer having to think about whether the international financial system might melt down over a long weekend, and the relief plus […]

Just three weeks ago, Via Meadia lamented the appointment of a South African crony as the head of the anti-corruption agency called the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). William Heath was part of now-President Zuma’s advisory team when he himself battled accusations of corruption over a huge arms deal, and Heath’s appointment to the SIU raised concerns […]

It is not quite the most controversial verse in the Bible, but Luke 1:35 comes close. Mary has just replied to the angel Gabriel’s statement that she will be the mother of the Messiah with a question of her own: “How shall this be,” she says in the words of the King James Version, “seeing […]

Following six weeks of big pro-US moves by Japan, Tokyo is also signing deals with China.  As the Wall Street Journal reports, last week saw a package of economic agreements that could help ease the Chinese yuan into a more international role and make life easier for Japanese companies doing business in China.Declinists will want […]

The Panda Lobby, the pundits and policy wonks who want the US to imitate China’s state capitalism, has long celebrated what it claims to be China’s far sighted and effective approach to industrial policy.  China, the Panda pundits tell us, will own the future because of its courageous subsidies to green technology and high speed […]

[The traditional Via Meadia Yule Blog continues today with the third of the Thirteen Posts of Christmas.  From Christmas Eve through to Twelfth Night (the feast of the Epiphany), we explore the Christmas story and the ideas behind the celebration.]In Matthew, the Christmas story and its immediate sequel runs from Chapter One, verse one through […]

In most of the world, December 25 is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus.  In Pakistan, it is more widely celebrated as the birthday of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father whose insistence on a separate state for the Muslims of British India led to the partition of the raj.Ardeshir Cowasjee, one of Pakistan’s great […]

The Times of India reports that Pakistan has named the largest bank in China to lead a consortium of funders who will finance a $1.2 billion natural gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan.  Reporting on a visit by the highly regarded Chinese diplomat Dai Bingguo to Pakistan, the Indian newspaper notes that Dai called for […]

Last night something like 100,000 Christians from Israel, the West Bank and abroad celebrated a peaceful Christmas in Manger Square where the Church of the Nativity marks a spot long believed to be the actual place where Jesus was born.  The secular Fatah government that runs the West Bank believes that the Palestinian nation includes […]

The big news last week was the death of Kim Jong-Il. Fond of speculating on North Korean politics, the media was of course in high gear trying to figure out what comes next for the Hermit Kingdom. No one knows, though a week after the Great Leader departed this world, he seems to have left […]