Friday, June 21, 2013

Governmental Paralysis in Illinois: Behind the Underfunded Pension Crisis

›
Sometimes when a government’s fiscal matters get bad enough, dysfunction in the real power-relations at the highest level can suddenly beco...
Monday, June 17, 2013

European Federalism in E.U.-U.S. Trade Negotiations

›
When U.S. President Barak Obama and the E.U. Presidents José Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy announced that talks would begin on a free tr...
Friday, June 14, 2013

Regulating Snus in the E.U.

›
Should the E.U. be able to regulate sales of a product that can legally be sold only in one state? Would such regulations encroach too mu...
Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Reinsurance as a Shell Game: Another Bailout to Come?

›
In the stock market, investors can be quite fastidious in demanding a certain quarterly profit or internal rate of return. The increasing a...
Sunday, June 9, 2013

Should the ECB Spend an Unlimited Amount on Bonds?

›
The European Central Bank did not place any limit on its program in which the bank purchases bonds of heavily indebted states so as to ke...
Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Starbucks Takes a Hit for Supporting Gay Marriage

›
In J anuary 2012, Starbucks joined Microsoft and Nike in publicly supporting the same-sex marriage bill in the U.S. state of Washington. ...
Monday, June 3, 2013

Erdogan Renovating Istanbul: Turkish Prime Minister or Mayor?

›
Istanbul is the historical seat of three empires, the last of which being the Ottoman Empire . Following World War I, which ended that Empi...
Sunday, June 2, 2013

Genetically-Modified Foods: Health in the E.U. and Rights in the U.S.

›
With regard to genetically-modified (GM) foodstuffs, an interesting cultural difference between Americans and Europeans surfaces. Even th...
Thursday, May 30, 2013

Federalism on Different Levels: Switzerland Capitulates to the E.U.

›
In 1960, Switzerland was one of the two founders of the European Free Trade Association . All of the countries participating in that free-t...
Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Merkel Siding with China against the E.U.: Federalism Imploding?

›
In May 2013, German Chancellor Angela Merkel interjected herself into the brewing trade conflict between the E.U. and China. At issue was t...
Friday, May 24, 2013

Taxes and Health Insurance: The United States Diverge Toward a Stronger Union

›
One of the main benefits of federalism is that it allows for both the tremendous power that can come from member states taking a united s...
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Jamie Dimon Wins Stockholder Vote: Exploiting Conflicts of Interest Undercuts Fairness

›
Chairman of JPMorgan since 2006 and CEO a year longer, Jamie Dimon faced down a daunting stockholder vote on May 21, 2013 on whether he sho...
Monday, May 20, 2013

President Obama as Chief Executive? Too Busy Leading and Legislating to Catch the IRS

›
Has the presidency become too big for one person? This question was salient in the 1970s, as Americans endured Nixon’s Watergate plight, Fo...
Saturday, May 18, 2013

Global Warming Reaches Critical Threshold

›
Sources: Background Picture: hherbzilla on Flickr Stats and "before/after" picture: Brian Merchant, " This Is Life i...
Thursday, May 16, 2013

Hollande Proposes Economic Government for Euro-Zone: Muddying the Water?

›
At a press conference marking French President Francois Hollande’s first year in office, the powerful head of the large E.U. state called f...