A few of you, or at least your 401(k)s, may have noticed that financial markets plummeted again on Thursday. European markets closed at or near two-year lows across the board and the Dow closed down more than 400 points.
Asian markets Friday morning opened in the tank: the Nikkei index tumbling more than 2.5%, Sydney down 3.5%, …
E.U.
Prime Minister Obama: Would the U.S. Be Better Served by a Parliament?
Over at the GPS Blog, Fareed Zakaria asks a pointed and valuable question: “Does America need a Prime Minister?” Given the paralysis and farce that has gripped Washington in recent months, it’s worth considering. As Zakaria observes, presidential systems never resolve the “basic contest for legitimacy” between the power of the …
U.K. Hacking Scandal: A Hollywood Connection?
Writing about the smoking gun letter from the News of the World‘s former royal editor and convicted phone hacker Clive Goodman on Aug. 16, I observed that it was only a matter of time until Hollywood took an interest in the saga. That moment may have come even sooner than expected with the Aug. 18 arrest of James Desborough, who …
When Is Inciting a Riot on Facebook Right? And When Is It Wrong?
London was atwitter Wednesday after a court handed two Cheshire men four-year sentences for trying unsuccessfully to use Facebook to incite riots. Some branded the sentence too harsh; others said it was too lenient. But everyone had an opinion.
“There seems to be a complete lack of proportionality to some of the
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The Merkel-Sarkozy Summit: Fiddling While Europe Burns
Politicians are notorious cynics, but French President Nicolas Sarkozy may be in a league of his own when it comes to exploiting collective crises in the hopes of creating personal gain. That is precisely what he was up to Tuesday during his joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, where he sought extend a …
U.K. Hacking Scandal: Has the Smoking Gun Been Found?
If Britain’s hacking scandal were a Hollywood thriller—and perhaps the most predictable outcome of this tangled saga is that it will be—the audience would be left guessing until a few seconds before the credits rolled which characters to believe. Should they take the word of a world famous tycoon and his clean-cut son? Give …
The Merkel-Sarkozy Summit: A Minimalist Affair
It says a lot about the dramatic crisis facing the euro zone when the leaders of its two biggest economies go into a highly scrutinized summit amid promises, assurances, and even a form of hype stressing that nothing much will come from it. But that’s precisely the buzz surrounding this afternoon’s Paris meeting between German …
A Week Later, the Battle to Understand England’s Riots Rages On
The French have a phrase for circumstances beyond control: “C’est la guerre,” literally “it’s the war.” They might say it, with a shrug, as they sit in traffic or wait for a bus that never arrives. But last week the expression, which dates back to World War II, took on a different inflection as residents of a village on the shores of …
As the GOP Presidential Race Heats Up, British Fascination Grows
Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry may be going head to head for the first time in Waterloo, Iowa tonight, but at London’s Waterloo Tube Station Monday morning, commuters couldn’t read enough about their showdown 4,000 miles away.
News of the Ames straw poll and Perry’s South Carolina campaign announcement have flooded …
Could French Doubts On Afghanistan Influence Future Foreign Policy?
It may wind up proving to be nothing more than mere politics, but if the re-thinking now being expressed by French Socialists about the country’s engagement in Afghanistan is in earnest, it could have some serious consequences for the military operations Paris is already involved in—and any more than might be looming.
On …
Why Turkey Holds the Key to the Regional Power Game on Syria
As the Assad regime on Sunday escalated its brutal crackdown by sending gunboats to shell the coastal city of Latakia, yet the rebellion shows no sign of abating despite at least 1,700 deaths so far, Syria’s fate may come to rest less in the hands of its own people, than in the corridors of power in neighboring and more distant …
After the Riots: the Economic Cost of London’s Mayhem
The shocking violence that rocked some of the U.K.’s biggest cities has ebbed, but the country is still counting the costs of the destruction — not only in lives (so far, five), but to property, tourism, and the difficult work of repairing the country’s reputation. The riots came at a wretched moment for the British—plunged in the …
From the Magazine: London’s Long Burn
The youth riots and disturbances in the U.K. may have calmed, but important questions still smolder in the wreckage left behind. Britain’s leaders pin the violence and looting on “sheer criminality”; the word “feral” was conspicuous in some coverage of the disturbances. But criminal opportunism is not a sufficient explanation. TIME …