June 9th, 2009
We’ve been waiting and waiting, but the widely predicted European backlash — against capitalism, against free markets, against the right — has not come. There are no demands for Marxist revolution, no calls for nationalization of industry, not even a European campaign for what the Obama administration calls “stimulus” — a policy more colloquially known as “massive government spending.” Read on »
June 2nd, 2009
Let’s face it: We don’t really know why North Korea decided to test a nuclear weapon last week, why it has suddenly declared the Korean War armistice of 1953 null and void, why it has launched several test missiles and is preparing to launch others. Read on »
May 26th, 2009
LONDON — Drip, drip, drip: The neverending stream of revelations has been compared by one British member of Parliament to “torture” — waterboarding? — and rightly so. One day, it emerges that a senior MP has charged British taxpayers £2,000 (about $3,200 as of yesterday) for the cleaning of the moat on his 13th-century estate. A few days later, another MP is revealed to have charged 1,645 pounds for a floating duck house. Read on »
May 12th, 2009
Apparently, President Obama told some good jokes at a dinner. The British Parliament is mired in an expenses scandal (one politician charged the government more than $3,000 to repair a leaking pipe under his tennis court). In China, they’re marking the anniversary of the earthquake that left some 80,000 people dead or missing a year ago, and in France, a young tennis star has tested positive for cocaine. But swine flu? The world’s media have moved on. Read on »
May 5th, 2009
WARSAW — After the new Starbucks opened, I walked by the place a couple of times, just to see the crowds. Strategically located midway between the university and the stock exchange, the world’s best-known coffee franchise immediately attracted a well-heeled clientele. Lines twisted around inside the shop and out the door. Up and down the street, blue-jeaned students and dark-suited stockbrokers carried their white paper cups with pride, the famous green label facing outward. Read on »
April 28th, 2009
Yesterday, the front page of my morning newspaper featured a photograph of uniformed Mexican police officers, machine guns at the ready, surgical masks strapped to their faces, seemingly prepared to defend their compatriots against the sudden outbreak of swine flu. I live in Warsaw, which is pretty far from Mexico City. But even if I lived in Paris, my morning paper would have contained similar pictures; so would it have done if I lived in Sydney or Kuala Lumpur. Read on »
April 21st, 2009
We’ve been waiting a long time for political upheaval to follow in the wake of technological change, and on April 7, it seemed to have arrived. From Moldova, of all places, came news of the Twitter Revolution: Read on »
April 14th, 2009
CHARLOTTESVILLE — Odd though it sounds, there is deep satisfaction to be had in watching one’s child clutch the pen of Thomas Jefferson’s “polygraph machine,” steady it with his grubby hands and carefully draw two identically wobbly circles. Read on »
April 7th, 2009
It is no fun to be the one who rains on the parade, and, if nothing else, President Obama’s trip to Europe has been quite a parade. Or maybe “sold-out concert tour” is the better metaphor. Read on »
March 31st, 2009
And now for a riddle: What is big, loud, unnecessary, and costs $75 million? No, not a retired elephant in a diamond-studded dress: The answer is, of course, a Group of 20 summit. Read on »