Do welfare states always end by eating their young?As Greek employers in the public and private sectors trim wages and payroll, the younger generation has less and less reason to stick around. NPR discusses Greece’s crisis of the young: The financial crisis gripping Greece is having a major impact on the country’s young people. A […]

When it comes to China’s purported sins, currency manipulation usually hogs the limelight and this week the US Senate, edging towards a trade war with China, got a nudge from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.  The FT reports: The chairman of the US Federal Reserve has accused China of damaging prospects for a global economic […]

The NYT has an encouraging story on the how an urban school near Boston is using Advanced Placement classes to promote an environment of learning.  The number of students opting to take AP classes has increased dramatically with the help of monetary incentives for students and teachers: South High students said Mr. Nystrom and his […]

The Palestinians’ UN bid last month doesn’t seem to have done anything to advance the peace process, much less secure a state. If anything, the UN stunt may have set things back.The UN announcement was never meant as an exercise in state-building — Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad is the one actually doing that work — […]

America’s labor market isn’t getting better, and it is hardest on people who haven’t worked in a long time.  The Economist reports: AMERICA’S great labour market slump continues to cast its pall over the economy, leaving one lonely group in particular shrouded in shadows. Over 6m Americans, more than 40% of all those unemployed, have […]

Here’s an issue on which Via Meadia and Greenpeace can agree: government subsidies to scofflaw fishing companies who routinely and flagrantly violate the law. As the Independent reports: In one case alone, European Commission (EC) officials are investigating subsidy payments to a group of companies affiliated to the Vidal family, from Galicia, which are thought […]

Soccer may be the world’s most popular sport, but it often appears to be run more like professional wrestling than like anything else.  Corruption is rife throughout international soccer, and Brazil is no exception. The nation, which boasts one of the world’s most successful national teams, is set to host the 2014 World Cup, but […]

In Fairfax County, Virginia, (where some of the Mead descendants are negotiating the county’s excellent public schools) paper textbooks are becoming a thing of the past. New online social studies textbooks are cutting costs, lightening backpacks and upping student achievement. From the Washington Post: It is the Washington area’s most extensive foray into online textbooks, […]

The swiftly arriving era of federal penny-pinching portends big cutbacks in US foreign aid, reports the New York Times: America’s budget crisis at home is forcing the first significant cuts in overseas aid in nearly two decades, a retrenchment that officials and advocates say reflects the country’s diminishing ability to influence the world. […] Representative […]

Horrible news for the Dems: Fanniegate is turning uglier still. Along with its evil twin Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae is one of the key institutions of the blue social model that provide government subsidies to the middle class.  Already implicated in the housing bubble and the proliferation of liar loans and bogus mortgage backed securities, […]