If you want an indicator of how confused green policy is in Europe, look no further than the fact that EU policy treats burning wood as an energy source of the future. This madness stems from the EU’s attempt to derive 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020; burning wood—or biomass, as […]

Editors’ note: What follows is the fifth part of an exchange on Russian-Western relations following from David Kramer and Lilia Shevtsova’s monthly column at The American Interest Online (see especially their February 21 essay, “Here We Go Again: Falling for the Russia Trap”). On March 12, Thomas Graham responded with his essay, “In Defense of a Strategic […]

The heir to the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty in India, Rahul Gandhi, tried today to compete with the BJP’s Narendra Modi on Modi’s home turf: the business world. By many accounts, he failed to impress. Addressing a gathering of Indian business tycoons in Delhi, his speech was vague and long on imagery and empty clichés, suggesting that Rahul has few […]

Is Ahmadinejad changing his tune as his presidency winds down? That may be the story we’ll be hearing from our media mavens in the coming weeks as Iran’s presidential election shifts into high gear.Iran’s President is campaigning hard for Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, his spiritual mentor and father-in-law of his son, to succeed him. According to the New […]

A string of violent attacks against elderly Armenians in an historically Armenian quarter of Istanbul (one woman has already died of her wounds) is making headlines in Turkey. The despicable violence is forcing Turks to do some soul-searching on their troubled history of mistreating Armenians. The New York Times reports: [T]he attacks have awakened fears—rooted in past episodes of repression […]

Law schools are facing a number of problems at the moment, but most of them boil down to one simple issue: they are training too many lawyers. So says law professor Eric Posner in Slate, tracing the problem back to the rapid growth of law schools in the boom years of the 1990s: The crisis could have […]

Jesus began his ministry by turning water into wine. Pope Francis has started his with an equally astounding feat: winning over the editors of the New York Times, who have published a raft of fawning stories highlighting Francis’s papal humility.Judging from a recent Pew Forum poll, the editors of the Times aren’t alone in their praise of the new pope. More than 84 […]

[Update below.] A college education used to be the way out of a job flipping burgers. These days, it’s a requirement. A McDonald’s franchise in Massachusetts posted a job advertisement for a cashier’s position that requires one to two years of experience and a bachelor’s degree. The Daily Beast reports: The ad calls for “friendly […]

Telework isn’t just convenient; it’s good for the bottom line too. An Australian accounting firm found that small businesses were more likely to increase their revenue if they allowed telework. The Sydney Morning Herald reports: According to the research small businesses whose employees worked remotely most or all of the time were 24 per cent more likely […]

A smiling Haruhiko Kuroda, the governor of the Bank of Japan, announced this morning that Japan will embark on one of the largest monetary stimulus programs in history. It’s a huge win for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who in his second coming has turned the prevailing image of the Japanese PM as a faceless, ineffective nonentity […]