China’s attempt at a high-speed rail network is fraught with corrupt officials, impossible costs, and deadly safety failures. But U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wishes America would follow it as a model. LaHood told The Cable last week: The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, …
Here are a few notable events and themes that caught my eye during my first week at the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) conference: The totalitarian states are deviously brilliant. Their representatives have been around for years, so they know everyone, and they know the drill. They waste time expertly …
Last year, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that America’s public school teachers are “desperately underpaid” and called for a doubling of teachers’ wages. A similar theme is touted frequently by politicians, media, and education unions. But teacher compensation is much more than salary. The plush benefits given to …
Amid the lawless bloodbath that is Somalia, the northern state of Somaliland remains a rare example of functioning democracy in the Muslim world. Unlike the rest of Somalia, Somaliland has maintained relative stability and peace despite occasional border conflicts with the semi-autonomous Somali province of Puntland. Since its unilateral referendum …
In a ruling last week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia largely sided with the Association of Private Colleges and Universities, which had sued the U.S. Department of Education and Education Secretary Arne Duncan alleging that rules promulgated by the Secretary unfairly discriminate against for-profit institutions. For-profit …
On June 28, during a press briefing by the Chinese Ministry of Defense, Chinese military press spokesman Senior Colonel Geng Yansheng released a bombshell. Asked by an unnamed correspondent about China’s response to Vietnamese air force patrols near the Spratly Islands, Geng made the usual declaration about China’s claims to …
Speaking this week at the Western Economic Association International, economic forecaster Allen Sinai talked about the damage the “fiscal cliff” of 2013 will cause the economy. Sinai concludes that a recession is unavoidable if Congress does not act to fix the fiscal cliff. The fiscal cliff has two components: (1) …
