Rethinking desalination (Hat tip toThe Issue.) Last month saw the release of a UN report that paints a very bleak picture of how humans are shepherding natural resources on the planet. One of the greatest causes for concern is our use of fresh water, without which life is impossible.Demands for fresh water come from both […]

Foriegn Affairs has published an article concerning how we might proceed a little differently with globalization. Advocates of engagement with the world economy are now warning of a protectionist drift in public policy. This drift is commonly blamed on narrow industry concerns or a failure to explain globalization’s benefits or the war on terrorism. These […]

This GAO report makes for a perplexing stumbling block to cost savings. Many of these individuals accumulated substantial assets, including million-dollar houses and luxury vehicles, while failing to pay their federal taxes. In addition, some case studies involved businesses that were sanctioned for substandard care of their patients. Despite their abusive and related criminal activity, […]

I see the history rewriters are tying to develop a new meme about FDR and the depression. They are now trying to argue that FDR scared businessmen and capitalist so badly that they were unwilling to invest and this was why the recovery was so weak and the depression lasted so long. As usual, they […]

Heritage notes that anti-dumping lawsuits have increased in the US and the administration is not attending to global free trade as we have dropped below the top ten. Such measures are supposed to be used to prevent other countries from selling their goods here at below-market prices, and that makes sense. But as Index co-editor […]

Update:Women and shopping Sink in the living room More observations on being married

BBC reports: A $1.2bn (£590m) contract for training Iraqi police was so badly managed that auditors do not know how the money was spent, the US state department says.The programme was run by a private US company, DynCorp. It insists there has been no intentional fraud.Auditors have stopped trying to audit the programme because all […]

NYT suggests this deficit spending. Veterans today have only the Montgomery G.I. Bill, which requires a service member to pay $100 a month for the first year of his or her enlistment in order to receive a flat payment for college that averages $800 a month. This was a reasonable enlistment incentive for peacetime service, […]

This is an article by the Washington Post: Oil Price Rise causes Global Shift in Wealth. It looks at how different countries are responding based on whether the oil money is flowing in or out. Some countries are spending, but not necessarily to diversify their economies. Some are flexing their muscles now that their financial’s […]

Salon published an essay on restrooms and handwashing, perhaps because AB has persisted in posting on this issue. So far this year Americans have used 1.8 million tons of paper towels and tissue, according to the American Forest & Paper Association, an industry group. There are approximately 3 million hand dryers installed in the country […]