Last month, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) chief Ali Fadavi declared, “The frontline of the Islamic Republic is the sea. Our enemy, the United States, has a military capacity at sea and has secured hegemony by the means of its naval capacity. . . . It is necessary that the Iranian navy counters […]

When your economy looks bad, it doesn’t mean it is bad. It just means those awful rating agencies are using the wrong metrics.  Get some better metrics and the problems will magically disappear.That is what Iran has learned from the Europeans, who habitually blame Moody’s and its kin  for pessimistic economic predictions. In Iran’s case […]

The Burypensions Blog has a post about Detroit’s pension reforms that have merely postponed fiscal collapse for another time (h/t John Ellis). The restructuring is being touted as returning Detroit to fiscal stability. But some disagree. From the post: As in New Jersey, Detroit has assured fiscal collapse by passing weak reforms that artificially reduce […]

Having one CEO sidelined by a criminal investigation could happen to anyone.   But having two get in Dutch with the law begins to look like carelessness.First it was Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whose fun-filled lifestyle went sadly and still mysteriously awry in a New York hotel. Now his IMF replacement, the equally French and equally talented Christine […]

It isn’t just retired US workers whose municipal pensions with imploded pensions who will be working at Micky D’s. The son of Sweden’s prime minister will soon be flipping burgers at the local McDonald’s. “A little work will be fun! Feels really good,” tweeted burgermeister Gustaf about the new gig.In the not too distant past, […]

That’s the suggestion made by the FT’s David Pilling, who views the recent train crash as a watershed moment: “Perhaps not since Tiananmen Square more than 20 years ago has the Communist party looked so naked in the face of public contempt.”The train wreck is different from other deadly disasters in China, like the collapse […]

An piece in today’s Washington Post from analyst (and old WRM colleague) Ray Takeyh brings important if unwelcome news: sanctions have failed to stop Iran’s march toward nuclear weapons.  Sooner rather than later, the US will face the choice it has spend ten years trying to avoid: the choice between a war with Iran or […]

China is concerned about Japan’s concerns about China. From the WSJ: China has expressed its ‘strong dissatisfaction’ at Japan’s comments that it was concerned with China’s increasing naval activity in waters.China’s foreign ministry spokesman clarified the situation: I hope Japan can learn from the past, seriously reflect on its own defense policy and do more […]

Italy’s poor prospects for growth mean and its high debt levels mean that the EU’s third largest economy is “bound to default” on its debt “sooner or later,” the head of a leading British think tank has told the BBC.While Italy has uncomfortably high debt levels, until recently the country’s relatively modest annual budget deficits […]

For Blacks everywhere, but especially in liberal northern states, even wealth does not always solve housing problems. A Brown University study reports that Blacks in the Midwest and Northeast live in worse neighborhoods than whites, even when Blacks earn good incomes.  Blacks earning $75,000 a year tended to live in ‘worse’ neighborhoods than white households […]