The Obama Administration needs to be bolder in reforming the two government-sponsored mortgage giants.

I have not written in this space on Libya, and the Western intervention therein, since March 22—just days after some $350 million worth of U.S. cruise missiles commenced the NATO campaign against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi. That is nearly five months ago, in a war that was supposed to be over in days, not […]

Niall Ferguson (he pronounces it “kneel,” by the way, so all you pretentious snobs can drop that ridiculous “Nile” business) wants no part of the China bandwagon.  In a Daily Beast column about his recent travels off the beaten track in the PRC, Ferguson notes China’s astounding progress — but focuses on a national real […]

Marine Insight has posted the 10 Maritime Piracy Affected Areas which include Malacca Straits, South China Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Guinea, Benin, Nigeria, Somalia, Indonesia, Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean. The article ends with a quote in regards to the inability of surrounding governments to stop the pirates: Marine piracy is a […]

It’s even worse than you think, the normally upbeat Joel Kotkin says as he reflects on recent riots in London and elsewhere.  Looking beyond the common cultural and political explanations, Kotkin sees a more fundamental problem with the way modern economies are organized: The hardening of class divisions has been building for a generation, first […]

Following China’s carrier launch last week, Taiwan and the US both responded: the Taiwanese military unveiled a carrier-destroying missile while the US showed off a shiny and advanced aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam.China responds: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has just returned from a very successful trip to China. As the Asia Times reports […]

64 years after independence, India’s prospects look suddenly shaky, and uncertainty and confusion faced Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he gave his Independence Day speech in India today. .  Opposition leaders attacked the speech as revealing the helplessness of the government in addressing corruption scandals and other serious problems facing the country. From the FT: The […]

George Soros describes how the euro can be saved in today’s FT: 1. Reform and recapitalisation of the banking system…Banks’ equity capital levels need to be greatly increased. If an agency is to guarantee banks’ solvency, it must oversee them too. A powerful European banking agency could end the incestuous relationship between banks and regulators, […]

As I’ve written, Assad’s core calculation is that he can crush domestic opponents city by city without triggering foreign intervention.  The US is out of the picture and the Security Council is unlikely to act, given Russian and Chinese anger at the shameless way NATO stretched the Libya authorization from a humanitarian rescue to intervention […]

First rogue journalists, now this? Chinese protesters in the coastal city of Dalian have successfully lobbied the local government to close a chemical plant that manufactured carcinogenic products. Is the Chinese government going soft?Unlikely. The government reportedly already had plans to shutter the plant before local citizens took to the streets, and the security response to […]