America’s infrastructure could use some work, but this is one more subject politicians would rather fight about than fix.It’s hard to get a handle on the real needs; lobby groups love to pull together ‘studies’ that ‘show’ that failing to spend $200 billion today will cost $300 gazillion tomorrow.The American Society of Civil Engineers for […]

Reality is beginning to dawn in North Africa and the Middle East. Without the economic growth necessary to support the development of stable and effective democratic governments, the wave of optimism that accompanied the Arab Spring has fallen flat.There are lots of problems with the MENA economies, but a decline in tourism — an important […]

It was an unusual public apology, a justification for tardiness that we wouldn’t expect from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The point isn’t whether or not his sickness was dubious (with supreme devotion to duty the premier met with foreign leaders while in hospital) but that he had to publicly admit his sickness as an excuse […]

EU leaders are losing their game of financial Whack-A-Mole.  New moles pop up before the old ones can be hammered back underground.Fortunately the latest mole to stick up its head is arunt: Cyprus. A battle over austerity has divided the island’s (Communist) government. The island’s banks, among Europe’s largest holders of Greek bonds, will take a […]

Are India and Pakistan about to kiss and make up?Some observers think so.They are wrong.India and Pakistan have a long history of freezes and thaws — and journalists get too  excited either way.Pakistan’s stylish new foreign minister has wowed the media with her youth and western ways.  Yawn.  As cynical (Indian) journalists note, Pakistan has […]

Don’t believe everything you read about Chinese innovation, research and development. While the headlines proclaim: “China to overtake US on science in two years” and “China seen overtaking U.S. in research“, China is still a long way behind the global competition.So says the WSJ, looking closely at patent filings in the leading countries.  95 percent of […]

An important post at Talking Points Memo this morning observes that the “anti-Keynesians” have won the Washington argument for now; stimulus is dead and austerity rules.  The evidence: a Nancy Pelosi statement that “it is clear we must now enter an age of austerity.”Fair enough, although Pelosi’s idea of austerity may not quite be up […]

The crises in Europe and the US get most of the ink, but Asia faces a dangerous double threat to its growth and stability that in the long run may have greater implications for the global picture.As the Asia Development Bank notes in a recent report, inflation is rising across Asia.  Currency manipulation (pegging currencies […]

The IMF has warned France that its budget deficit will not hit the target (3 percent of GDP in 2013) without more spending cuts.  Bad news for President Sarkozy’s uphill re-election campaign, and a sign, also of the growing strains at the heart of modern Europe: the postwar partnership between France and Germany forged by […]

Here’s one way to deal with the problems of the breakdown of the Blue Social Model: assume them away.Bloomberg reports that many state pension funds have been assuming an annualized return of 8% on their investments, despite earning no more than half that in recent years (Washington’s state fund, the top performer, only managed to […]