A new forecast for 2014 predicts lower prices and lower demand for OPEC oil, despite an increase in overall global demand. It’s not surprising that cheap American shale energy is driving the shift. America’s shale boom is predicted to continue to satisfy an ever larger chunk of global demand in 2014. The Financial Times writes: […]

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 […]

On June 22, 2013, the New York Times (in a story by Mark Oppenheimer, one of its regular religion reporters), carried an account of yet another skirmish in the culture war within the Episcopal Church. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, preached a sermon in Curacao, the […]

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 […]