Citing a recent report from the Pew Charitable Trusts the Washington Post is out to panic the millennials a story about how a wave of downward mobility driving Americans out of the middle class.  It turns out a number of Americans whose parents were middle class don’t do as well once they are out on […]

While the climate change movement has been chasing down one blind alley after another for the last twenty years, other environmental issues have gotten short shrift.The most urgent problem is the unsustainable assault on the world’s fragile fish stocks. As a paper in Marine Policy and a subsequent report in the Washington Post tell us, […]

“We should resign ourselves to the fact that the ‘new normality’ is characterised by volatility and uncertainty.” So says the CEO of Deutsche Bank.One element of that volatility and uncertainty — the possibility of heavy losses for holders of sovereign bonds issued by cash-strapped European countries — could lead to the collapse of a number […]

Syria could be next in the Arab Spring, but judging from life in Damascus, you wouldn’t guess it. The NYT explains: DAMASCUS, Syria — As protests broke out across a restive Syria on a recent Sunday, and crowds were dispersed yet again by gunfire that left many dead, the conversation in the capital dwelled not […]

Those who truly loathe and despise the environmental movement will enjoy this New York Times account of green activists squirming in impotent fury over President Obama’s latest “betrayal,” last week’s decision to stiff environmentalists over promised plans to tighten nationwide ozone emissions standards. The question for environmentalists became, what to do next? ‘There is shock and […]

Quite possibly not — in which case Europe as we know it could be lost.  The FT reports: If Italy becomes infected…the Eurozone has neither the financial nor the political resources to go to Rome’s rescue. Italy must inoculate itself against the sovereign debt virus. Yet an incompetent political system has left it paralyzed in […]

A story in today’s FT highlights the concern felt by India’s national security leadership at what they perceive is a widening gap between the military capabilities of China and India. Indian commanders say the government’s reluctance to take decisions is severely hampering their ability to guard against a “collusive threat” from two nuclear armed neighbours […]

More sad news in Nigeria as sectarian violence intensifies in Jos, a city that has suffered recurring cycles of murderous attacks and retribution between Christians and Muslims.The FT reports that this week has seen 50 deaths and counting in the latest round of tit-for-tat violence. In this case, it looks like Christians sparked the cycle, […]

Against a backdrop of political meltdown and spiraling violence in its most populous city, Pakistan now has to deal with this year’s monsoon floods. The News reports that 300,000 people have been affected by flooding. According to an estimate, hundreds of thousands of acres of standing crops have been devastated in flash-floods across the country and […]

In the midst of criticism aimed at Angela Merkel for her apparent unwillingness to put Germany’s full economic weight behind euro rescue, the FT’s Gideon Rachman makes some important points in support of her cautious approach: First, the chancellor’s critics often fail to acknowledge the real political and legal constraints that she is operating under. […]