What the United States can learn from the tiny island nation of Mauritius. Suppose someone were to describe to you a small country that provided free education through university for all of its citizens, transportation for school children, and free health care—including heart surgery—for all. You might suspect that such a country is either phenomenally rich or on the fast track to fiscal crisis.
This will be a very short diary. I just wanted to get this chart out there. I originally received it as a post by the Facebook group "The Christian Left."
Does great wealth bring fulfillment?
An ambitious study by Boston College suggests not. For the first time, researchers prompted the very rich—people with fortunes in excess of $25 million—to speak candidly about their lives. The result is a surprising litany of anxieties: their sense of isolation, their worries about work and love, and most of all, their fears for their children.
Once upon a time, Social Security was considered the "third rail" of American politics. The "third rail" is the train track that carries the high-voltage power; touching it means instant death.
The "third rail" metaphor has for decades been applied to Social Security, a government program so popular with the American public that proposing any changes in it would mean political death to the politician.
The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is the ideal environment for laundering money - and if such a scandal emerges, it will mean the end of the cap-and-trade programme, a leading investment banker has warned.
Teodorin's World: Playboy bunnies. $2 million Bugattis. Bags full of cash. Meet the world's richest minister of agriculture and forestry.
What might the Arab uprising mean for the world? No one knows the answer to this question. But this should not prevent one from making a guess at the range of uncertainty.
Two men have been injured in what officials say was an accidental shooting at a central Illinois gun show.
Every time there is a new shooting tragedy the spokespeople from the NRA have to create a response. I’ve heard enough of them to anticipate their verbiage. Here is my impression of an NRA supporter’s response. I think it will go a little like this:
Value is the only commonality in an increasingly complex, challenging and interdependent world.
Laurance Allen: Editor + Publisher
