Few in Europe are happy to admit it, but Italy is looking disturbingly similar to Greece these days. Mass youth unemployment, an over-regulated bureaucratic economy and a shaky financial sector have crippled the fiscal health of both countries; both now face a future of austerity and stagnation. And the similarities became even more pronounced late […]

Egypt has a problem with foreigners. More accurately, Egypt has a problem because there aren’t enough foreigners investing or traveling in Egypt anymore.After the revolution began last year, foreign investment dried up, fast. Tourists disappeared and haven’t really come back. The two groups—investors and travelers—are extremely important sources of money for the Egyptian government and […]

Here’s another reminder that the uprisings of the Arab Spring are a lot messier and more complicated than the optimists want you to believe: The Syrian opposition today issued a stinging riposte against its implacable foe…Israel. Reports YNet: Leader of the Syrian opposition bloc Burhan Ghalioun said Saturday that the Syrian regime signed an agreement […]

Greece’s exit from the Euro is looking more likely by the day, and increasing numbers of analysts now believe that that may be the best way forward—at least for the Greeks, if not the rest of Europe. Many countries stand to lose significant investments should Greece bail on the common currency.A new piece in French daily […]

We’ve been following the race in the Wisconsin effort to recall Governor Scott Walker because in our view this is the most important election in America before the Big One in November.We still hold to that belief, but this thing is looking less like a race and more like a coronation. With only two weeks […]

Together with the election of François Hollande in France, a European bank walk (more and more depositors moving money out of the banking systems of countries they think might be at risk of leaving the euro) is steering Europe toward a new set of policies. As the Financial Times details, Germany in particular is being […]

In a recent piece at Bloomberg, Mark C. Taylor makes a provocative argument that cuts against the grain of the usual thinking about college reform: Competition is killing higher education, he says.This is certainly a controversial position, but Taylor has amassed considerable evidence for his conclusion. An atmosphere of intense competition for new applicants, he […]

First Tripoli, now Beirut. Next, Hezbollah?From the NYT: Gun battles between Lebanese factions supporting and opposing the government of President Bashar al-Assad spread to Beirut on Monday in the most serious outbreak of violence in Lebanon since the Syrian uprising began, leaving several people dead and the country more tense than ever in its effort […]

One of the story threads we like to keep an eye on here at Via Meadia is loosely called “jobs of the future”. It’s a way to look at the shape of the new economy struggling to emerge from the disintegrating remains of the blue social model, and it’s a focus that we think can […]

Remember when Occupy Wall Street was sweeping the nation? How the mighty have fallen. We marveled at OWS’s spectacular fizzle this spring as it threatened reassert itself with the advent of more propitious weather for street demonstrations. But though Occupy is a bust, we speculated that we may yet see a real left-populist movement emerge […]