A new, high profile report by a distinguished bipartisan group of experts chaired by former Fed chief Paul Volcker and Former New York Lieutenant Gov. Richard Ravitch, shows that state finances are much worse than many believe, and that massive adjustments are coming our way.While some have argued that talk of a crisis in state […]

Up until now, China’s leadership has surprised many of its critics with its ability to adapt to changed circumstances and manage in a very technocratic way all kinds of complicated questions. Yet a report in the New York Times explains how even the most senior members of China’s elite are worried and perplexed by the difficulties their […]

It is one of the great tragedies of Egypt’s revolution that every step “forward” has seemingly been accompanied by a brutal ordeal for the women of that country. More than a year after the toppling of Mubarak, the women of Tahrir Square occupy a radically different, and more degraded, place than they did last February. The […]

A new report in the Wall Street Journal details how delinquency on student loan debt is actually highest among the middle-aged, defined roughly as adults between 40 and 60. Delinquencies for those in their 40s stands at an alarming 11.9 percent. Meanwhile, over the past seven years debt rates for those in their 50s and […]

Despite the best efforts of technocratic Prime Minister Mario Monti to reform his country’s sclerotic economic system, Italy remains an awful place for the young to find work. The labor reform passed in the spring has been hailed as a major step forward, but as the FT points out, its focus was nearly entirely on […]

An apparent suicide bombing in Damascus has killed Syria’s defense minister, as well as Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law. The NY Times reports: The casualties were from the core team trying to enforce a security solution to the uprising in Syria, and in such a tense, suspicious climate, it was not clear who President Assad might find to […]

The New York Times, which many years ago (when I came to America as a young man) was known as the Grey Lady of political and cultural conservatism, has more recently become an icon of progressive virtues. Its coverage of events dealing with homosexuality is extensive, possibly compulsive. One may expect, sometime between Labor Day […]

As Scranton teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, its mayor Chris Doherty made news earlier this month by paying city workers minimum wage rather than their full salaries, citing empty coffers. Scranton’s police, fire, and public workers unions are now asking a court to hold the mayor in contempt for defying a court order to […]

The largest pension fund in the U.S., the California Public Employees Retirement System, also known as Calpers, returned a measly 1 percent on its investments last year. This marks the third time in five years that the pension fund has failed to reach the benchmark 7.5 percent it needs to fulfill pension obligations. The statement by Calpers’s […]

When Raul Castro began assuming power from Fidel in 2008, there were hopes he would open up the Cuban economy. The Obama administration relaxed some restrictions on travel and remittances in 2009. In late 2010, the Cuban government allowed citizens to open private businesses. Cell phone use on the island increased. And this past April, the […]