Bad global economic news: Chinese exports and imports both took a tumble in June, slipping 3.1 and 0.7 percent, respectively. Those figures may not sound dramatic, but considering the historically blistering rate of Chinese growth over the past decade they suggest a serious slowdown looming in the world’s second-biggest economy.This is all further evidence that the […]

Coursera has raised another $43 million from investors, and hopes the new funds will help it to finally reach profitability. The New York Times reports: Over the next few months, Coursera plans to double its employees to about 100, and expand in several areas, including mobile apps and its Signature Track offerings, which charge a […]

Illinois still hasn’t done anything about its pension crisis, and its inaction has become an embarrassment. After failing to pass a reform bill in 2012, and failing again to do anything before its session adjourned in May, the state legislature has just missed yet another deadline. After the Spring session adjourned, Governor Pat Quinn called a […]

If you’re wondering why the rent in New York is so high, read this list compiled by Business Insider. It’s a list that every candidate for mayor of New York should read but probably won’t: it showcases eight very well-intentioned blue laws that in their actual effects disadvantage the young and reduce opportunities for the […]

French President François Hollande is about a couple of months past the first-year mark, and it’s been a disastrous term so far. If he’s surprised by this, he shouldn’t be. Right out of the gate, he’s made moves that both supporters and opponents would consider missteps. He raised taxes on businesses to increase revenue for […]

The de facto Qatar-Turkey alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has been hit by a powerful counterpunch from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who have jointly promised $8 billion in aid for Egypt’s new government.Qatar had been hoping to ride the Islamist tide to greater regional power and influence, giving about $8 billion to […]

WRM’s latest op-ed in the WSJ analyzes the dangerous gap between President Obama’s words and his actions: Both President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year told the world boldly that Syria’s President Bashar Assad “must” go. Yet the despot remains, gaily crossing American “red lines” and making U.S. policy look feckless. […]You […]

It’s the most open secret in Washington that America’s Afghanistan policy is in deep disarray. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was quick to try to derail the most recent attempt between the US and the Taliban to negotiate an end to the Afghan war; Karzai fumed that the effort was “in reality an attempt to cut him out and make an […]

A surgery center in Oklahoma has started a bidding war by offering drastically lower prices than other providers and posting them online. The center describes itself as “free-market loving”—an unorthodox but welcome branding for a health care provider. The evidence of its success, however, is eye-popping. Where some hospitals charge more than $16,000 for a breast biopsy, […]

The public pensions crisis is one of the greatest challenges facing the states today, but thus far it has mostly met with silence from Washington. This may be about to change. Mary Williams Walsh, who has been all over the pensions story for the New York Times, is now reporting that Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah […]