Did Qaddafi die to save Assad and Ahmadinejad? It certainly looks like China and Russia regret allowing NATO to bomb Libya. Too much Western meddling in the Middle East has not made either of the two Security Council veto wielders happy. They will not repeat their mistake in Syria or Iran.NATO intervened in Libya to […]

The crisis in the EU has moved through several stages.  In the initial stage, it was a crisis of small peripheral economies: Ireland, Portugal, Greece.  The question then was whether the crisis would spread from the small fry to Spain. If it was a small fry problem, Europe could solve it with the back of […]

Some greens don’t feel they are living unless they are crying “Wolf!”  The lastest wolfspotting call comes from the authors of the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook, who warn us that the year 2017 is the deadline for radically overhauling our energy-producing infrastructure before the chance to stop harmful climate change will “be lost […]

The word in the asphalt jungle is that Coca-Cola intervened and blocked a plan to ban bottled water in Grand Canyon National Park. The NYT has the story: Stephen P. Martin, the architect of the [bottle ban] plan and the top parks official at the Grand Canyon, said his superiors told him two weeks before […]

Via Meadia is always interested in taking the pulse on the Anglosphere and today the pulse is strong. The latest news in the Great Game is that the United States will be establishing permanent naval operations in Australia. The WSJ reports: President Barack Obama will announce an accord for a new and permanent U.S. military […]

American universities and (especially) their fundraising networks are the envy of the world. The past few years have seen a number of universities attempt to mimic the American fundraising spirit. For some pointers, perhaps they should look to Penn State, where students’ school passion has led to a riot. The New York Times reports: After […]

Can’t say we didn’t warn you. Municipal bankruptcies are back in the news today in a big way, with the FT reporting that Jefferson County, Alabama has filed for the largest such bankruptcy in history after a deal with its creditors fell apart overnight.The story is filled with the usual cast of characters: failed infrastructure […]

With the attention of the mainstream media fixed on Europe, Via Meadia readers will be aware that trouble brewing in Argentina could blindside the global economy. Some in the economics establishment might disagree, but the chorus of concerned voices is growing — noted economist and prolific blogger Tyler Cowen picks up on the story today.While […]

Did a Tennessee preacher’s book kill? It’s a topic for debate after three homeschooled children died from corporal punishment. In each case, the parents had been reading Michael and Debi Pearl’s To Train Up a Child.  The NYT reports: More than 670,000 copies of the Pearls’ self-published book are in circulation, and it is especially […]

At a crucial moment during the Napoleonic Wars, Admiral John Jervis, first Earl of St. Vincent, famously wrote in a dispatch, “I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by sea.” Over 200 years later, St. Vincent’s prediction is coming true: the French are […]