It’s official: the Bharatiya Janata Party has selected Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its candidate for prime minister for the 2014 parliamentary elections in India. While his candidacy is not unexpected—he has been the rising star of the BJP—it has exposed divisions not just in Indian society, but within the BJP itself.Senior party members, […]

Being an economist is dangerous work in Argentina; too much honesty and integrity can lead to a midnight phone call from the government threatening incarceration. Orlando Ferreres, a respected economist in Buenos Aires, was the latest economist to dare tell the people that the country’s inflation index is a fat pack of lies. Naturally, reports […]

Rosanna Fay is a career-minded woman who chose not to have children, anticipating many years of freedom and professional success—and then her parents began to age. She found that caring for them limited her career just as much as children might have. In an enlightening and sad piece in The Atlantic, Fay hits on the some of […]

When Showa, a Japanese company that supplies precision parts to companies like Toyota and Nintendo, went looking for a site for its first overseas factory, China was the obvious first choice. Many of Showa’s customers have factories there and it is the biggest market in the region. But in the end the company’s president chose […]

The day of reckoning has finally arrived for a number of short-haul Amtrak routes in the American heartland. After years of delivering subsidies for low-ridership routes connecting cities like Chicago and Indianapolis or Oklahoma City and Dallas, the federal money train is about to make its final stop, leaving the states to pick up the […]

China continues to build its naval fleet as tensions rise in South and East Asia. This is good news for the China Shipbuilding Industry Co., a state-run military contractor and the nation’s largest shipbuilder. The company announced plans to accept $1.4 billion in private investment, which will fund the building of larger, more threatening warships. From […]

Republicans are no doubt popping champagne corks all across the country in light of some impressive new poll numbers about public perception of the GOP. The WSJ reports: Republicans are now rated higher than Democrats on handling the economy and foreign policy, and the GOP’s lead has strengthened on several other issues, including dealing with […]

We’re about to see a lot more cancer. According to a new report by the Institute of Medicine, by the year 2030 2.6 million more Americans will get cancer every year, a 45 percent increase over current rates. That along would be cause for serious concern, but when you add our poor cancer care standards […]

Every time we think we’ve reached rock bottom in the pension crisis, a new piece of data comes along to let us know there’s still further to fall. As reported by Reuters, a recent Moody’s study contains several disturbing facts: the 61 most populous US cities are together facing a $99 billion shortfall in pension funds, […]

Bill de Blasio’s win in New York City’s mayoral primary has Democratic interest groups rushing to offer their endorsement. Josh Gold, political director of the Hotel Trades Council, said, “It’s time for working people and Democrats to unite behind our next mayor, Bill de Blasio.” An endorsement from the prominent labor group indicates that the […]