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Professor Balkin discusses corporations as slaves – following the RBC.
Archive for the ‘International Affairs’ Category
February 3rd, 2012
February 2nd, 2012
Category: France
Youth unemployment is high in France; many people don’t get into a stable job until their mid-20s. Meanwhile, French Presidential candidate François Hollande wants to lower the retirement age to 60. The math is eye-opening. French life expectancy is about 80. Under the Hollande proposal, the typical French person will have a working life of [...]
January 24th, 2012
Why did Merkel shake Sarkozy’s hand more warmly than at the last summit? Does that mean she’s softerning her stance on a Greek bailout? And did you overhear what a friend of a friend of mine thinks he overheard in a cloakroom in the Bundestag? These are the sort of parlour game questions to which [...]
January 16th, 2012
A striking but unrepresentative example of waste and vanity in Spanish public spending.
January 13th, 2012
Category: Film, Middle East Politics
Andrew Sullivan flags a propaganda video made by the Assad regime that uses Darth Vader’s theme as background music. That would actually be a compliment to Assad; at least Darth was competent and cool-looking. The movie joke I have heard over and over about Bashar Assad in the Middle East is both more accurate and [...]
December 29th, 2011
Category: Foreign Policy, Israel
As long as people are making predictions for the new year, I’ll hazard something myself: Israel and America will have a loud diplomatic dispute about 11 months from now. President Obama’s initial attempts at jump-starting the Mideast peace process were well-intentioned and sound from a policy perspective, but somewhat naive politically. Demanding a settlement freeze, [...]
December 22nd, 2011
Mark Kleiman and I go Bloggingheads on drugs and HIV in the Russian Federation, poppy eradication in Afghanistan, Mexican drug violence, dealing with drug users and drug sellers in United States.
December 15th, 2011
Thre cable TV service run by crimunals in Rio´s favelas was much cheaper than its legal successors.