The number of internet users in India is expected to triple from 100 million to 300 million in the next two years, Google predicts.  From the Wall Street Journal: In an interview, Google’s country head in India, Rajan Anandan, said the Web giant expects India to reach at least 300 million Internet users by 2014, […]

Joe Joffe, editor of Die Zeit, one of the most respected German news organizations, has a smart though not optimistic piece about the Arab Spring in the Wall Street Journal.  Joe is a WRM colleague at The American Interest, and he and I have knocked around Brazil and most recently Yaroslavl.  Joe is always worth […]

Posting may be a little irregular during the next few days.  I leave this evening for a week teaching and lecturing on both Israeli and Palestinian campuses.  I’ll be teaching Thucydides in Israel and speaking on Middle East issues at Palestinian universities — including Al Quds, which has a close relationship with Bard.Thanks to the […]

The more you look under the hood of China’s economic growth model, the more trouble you see.  As a recent report in the  Wall Street Journal pointed out, as small manufacturers face a profit squeeze, a new class of lenders, “guarantors” are charging high interest rates when bank lending dries up. Guarantors have become the […]

The war on the young is led “by cadres of elderly men, content to manage decline” and exacerbated by younger generations, who don’t seem to know what’s going on or understand the gravity of the financial situation that will hit them in the future. Luke Johnson, writing in the FT, describes the Italian and Japanese version […]

President Obama’s review of wasteful federal spending is digging up some unsettling numbers. According to the Labor Department, at a time of high unemployment and tight budgets dozens of states are fraudulently helping too many people, not too few. The WSJ reports: Nearly $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error during the three years […]

The Obama administration is in hot water while Congress investigates the bankruptcy of solar panel maker Solyndra, a major recipient of federal stimulus loans. Whether or not the federal investigation into Solyndra uncovers a serious scandal, the situation smells a little, well, organic. A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create […]

The blue social model was already unsustainably expensive for states like New York, California and Illinois.  Now antsy bond markets are raising the price. The bond markets have long ignored the high costs and poor economic performance of blue model states; no more.Paul E. Peterson and Daniel Nadler explain the challenges these states will face […]

With Europe unable to solve its financial crisis on its own, attention has turned abroad as bankers look to Asia and the US for help. China balked; luckily for Europe, Uncle Sam is still a reliable friend. The Federal Reserve, along with several other central banks, is stepping in to save the day. The European […]

Corruption scandals are rocking the administration of Brazil’s new president Dilma Rousseff – yesterday saw the ouster of the fifth cabinet-level official since June. According to the WSJ: Though none of the officials have been formally charged with any crimes, the scandals have reminded Brazilians that despite recent economic gains, corruption remains a significant obstacle […]