Millennials don’t differ from their parents all in much in their living and buying patterns: they still intend to settle down in a house in the suburbs. At least here, the much-vaunted “generational shifts” between the Boomers and Gen Y aren’t in evidence. But those concerned about the importance of density to economic growth needn’t worry. Millennials can keep moving to the suburbs in their thirties without removing themselves out of the “creative class” economy.

For the first time since 2001, the State Bank of Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $2.9 billion, prompting a mini-economic crisis in the country. Pakistan now has barely enough in the kitty to pay its import bill for three weeks. As a result, the inflation rate has gotten even higher and the Pakistani rupee continues to tank, putting further pressure on finances.

How corrupt is the Yanukovich government? Extremely, says Anders Åslund of the Peterson Institute for International Economics: “The Ukrainian government’s budget deficit of 6 percent of GDP or $11 billion is driven by what is commonly called the “Yanukovich family” siphoning big money from the state budget.”

Yesterday the Belgium Senate approved, 50-17, a bill allowing terminally ill children to opt for euthanasia. This story shows just how quickly allowing limited mercy killing for terminally ill adults can lead to wider political and social consequences. The parallel case of the Netherlands, where doctors are never prosecuted for euthanizing children under age 12, paints a scary picture of euthanasia’s future.

The Education Department has just released an early draft of its plan to limit federal aid to colleges, and for-profit schools are squarely in the spotlight. Under the new proposal, for-profit colleges and career training programs at community colleges whose average graduate debt exceeds certain benchmarks will become ineligible for Pell Grants and other forms of federal aid. This is a decent start, but it could go much further.

This week India announced it would train Vietnamese sailors, a clear sign that military cooperation between Vietnam and India is strengthening. In general, policy-makers in Hanoi and New Delhi know that the relationship between their two countries is mutually beneficial. The announcement is also a sign that the coalition of Asian nations seeking to cooperatively balance a rising and aggressive China is growing stronger.

US leadership and innovation over the past 12 years has helped reduce the death rate from malaria among children under five by 51 percent. The mass production of life-saving technologies at affordable prices is beating back one of humanity’s oldest and costliest diseases.

A wealthy Texas teenager who killed four pedestrians in a DUI is being let off with only probation because he was diagnosed with a rare new disease: “affluenza”. Apparently, some psychiatrists are arguing, wealthy people have had their moral compasses de-calibrated by privilege. We’re not in a position to judge the case on its legal merits, but we’re pretty certain there’s a cure for this horrible disease: jail.

In Donetsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine, there are no protestors in the streets. There are no roadblocks, no barricades, no riot police. People there have a message for the protestors in Kiev, as Andrew Roth writes in the New York Times: Go back to work.

America averaged 8.075 million barrels a day in the first week of December, our highest total since 1988. It’s the latest in a string of milestones for the US, which continues to reap the benefits of shale. Fracking has changed the American energy landscape virtually overnight; the idea that the US might contemplate opening up exports of oil and gas would have been laughable ten or even just five years ago, but that’s where we are today.