Here at Via Meadia, we’re considering a new pension plan for our interns. Here’s how it works: The interns put money in the pension lockbox. The staff then takes money out of that lockbox and uses it to pay for lunches. But don’t worry: for every penny taken out of the lockbox, VM will place […]

It’s not just the wealthy who are raising a stink over François Hollande’s tax policies. Small French entrepreneurs are up in arms over his decision to tax capital gains at the same rate as earned income. Calling themselves “les pigeons,” which loosely translates to “suckers,” they’ve taken to Facebook and Twitter to organize their protests, […]

The Washington Post has some dire words of warning on China’s real estate market: As home prices have skyrocketed, many Chinese households have gone all in on real estate by pouring years of savings into buying as many homes as they can.But as the country’s economy slows to its worst pace in years, China’s dependence on real estate for growth […]

Well that was fast. Earlier today we were saying how the end of Georgian parliamentary elections was only just the beginning of the story there. This afternoon, the victorious Bidzina Ivanishvili called a press conference to demand that Mikhail Saakashvili step down immediately as president:Winning a majority in parliament and demanding your opponent completely relinquishes power: […]

We’ve previously highlighted the onshoring process that’s well underway: U.S. companies moving their manufacturing back stateside as the relative competitiveness of American workers increases. But it’s not just U.S. companies. Foreign companies are also expanding their business in the U.S., with foreign investment set to surge, according to a new Kiplinger Letter report mentioned in Businessweek. China’s Golden […]

The United States isn’t the only country wasting piles of money on failed initiatives to promote electric cars. In Germany, costly measures to encourage electric car development have been useless, as only 4,600 electric cars are on German roads today (that’s less than a hundredth of a percent of all registered cars). The cars are still too […]

Iran’s Fars News Agency is standing by its story: American rural whites really would vote for Ahmadinejad over Obama. They’re not bothered by the fact that the source for their original story was a fake poll from the Onion. No matter, say the editors of Iran’s Fars News Agency, the Onion‘s poll was fake but accurate: “Although […]

Greece’s far right neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn has taken on policing responsibilities in Athens, with disturbing results. An article in the Guardian paints a dismaying picture of Greece’s trouble with politics and immigration these days: One victim of crime, an eloquent US-trained civil servant, told the Guardian of her family’s shock at being referred to […]

As Spain deals with a secessionist movement and a worsening economy, it’s gearing up to receive life-saving injections from Mario Draghi’s big-muscle sovereign central bank, says Reuters.The German taxpayers, however, are dragging their feet, reluctant to foot the bill once again, and Angela Merkel is treading lightly. She is reluctant to have to ask for bailouts […]

As the Associated Press reports, Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters that the Islamist extremists who control northern Mali should be dislodged by military force: They are responsible for terrorism, for kidnapping, and for robbery. This is an issue that must be dealt with through security and military means.The actual fighting, […]