A dispute over solar panels may be sparking a minor trade war between Europe and China. The EU’s trade commissioner is proposing a 40 percent levy on cheap Chinese solar panels in a bid to save Europe’s struggling domestic production. The Financial Times reports: [One struggling German solar panel producer] contended that Chinese competitors used illegal government […]

“Tuition discounts” (grants and scholarships) at private colleges have been steadily rising for the past seven years, reports the WSJ. In 2012, the average discount rate hit 45 percent off of the total tuition bill—the highest it’s ever been.The downward pressure on prices comes because colleges have been finding it difficult to hit their enrollment targets. Desperate […]

Three weeks ago Chinese troops ventured 19 kilometers inside Indian territory and set up camp, prompting frantic Indian officials to insist they withdraw or face the consequences. Yesterday, finally, India and China agreed to end the Great Himalayan Standoff of 2013…for now.The Indian military apparently had retaliated against the Chinese invaders by setting up its own camp […]

If there’s a contest between California and Texas, it ain’t even close when it comes to energy. California’s anti-fracking policies, says the WSJ‘s editors, are depriving the state’s poor and unemployed of high-paying jobs and social services; meanwhile Texas is riding the shale energy wave to a low unemployment rate, higher public revenues, and an […]

In Pakistan’s Punjab province, a region populated mostly by poor farmers, the run-up to this weekend’s elections has taken on a decidedly sectarian tone.Maulana Abdul Khaliq Rehmani is the leader of a political group that is fielding 130 candidates, can count on as many as 12,000 votes—not enough to win a seat, reports Declan Walsh […]

The statistics that open Richard Epstein’s WSJ review of Steven J. Harper’s The Lawyer Bubble paint a depressing picture of the state of the legal profession. Top firms are cutting back, wages are down, and tens of thousands of young law grads are looking for work in a competitive marketplace. As a result, law schools are feeling the pinch. […]

As Syria burns and Egypt seethes, the biggest foreign policy story is unfolding right here at home. The establishment is rapidly losing patience with President Obama’s Middle East policy.For some time, the left of the MSM has been attacking the White House over issues like drones and Guantanamo, but now much heavier fire is coming […]

Over the weekend, President Obama acknowledged that the US would likely become a net exporter of natural gas by 2020. This is a remarkable admission; only five years ago, the government was predicting natural gas imports were set to quadruple. At that time, companies were scrambling for permits to build facilities to import liquefied natural […]

So far, 2013 has been a bush league year in American politics. Gay marriage, gun control and amnesty for illegal immigrants are hot button emotional issues and they have a lot of practical importance for a lot of people, but the republic will not stand or fall based on lesbian prenups, gun background checks or […]

Asia’s Game of Thrones went nuclear this week as Japan prepared to reopen a facility capable of producing enough weapons-grade plutonium for 2,000 nuclear weapons in a single year. Abe and Putin made modest overtures towards warming relations, likely driven by a mutual interest in balancing China’s influence in the region. For its part, China […]