Simmer down kids! “Pool rules,” as some readers may remember from the halcyon summer days of childhood, are the basic safety protocols everyone has to follow in order to allow everyone to enjoy the pool: no running, no diving, and especially no horseplay. As governments around the world clamp down on tax avoidance […]
Author: Erik Sass
Gulf countries gave flagship airlines $48B in subsidies
Illinois Senator Everett Dirkson is famously supposed to have remarked: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” In the case of state subsidies to three of the world’s most well-known airlines, however, the saying might have to be paraphrased: “Ten billion here, ten billion there…” According to […]
Elections Confirm UK Polarization
The European parliamentary elections, which took place under the pall of continuing confusion and uncertainty surrounding the UK’s Brexit and attracted 37% turnout, reveal a polarized country in the midst of a wrenching political realignment. The big questions are what the new political equilibrium will look like, and how long it will take […]
It Was Always Going To End In Tears (P.S. It Will Never End)
By Erik Sass, TES Editor-in-Chief In so many ways, Theresa May’s tearful final departure as UK prime minister is classic Brexit: long expected but long delayed, it is a dramatic event that changes nothing, an emotional milestone marking progress to nowhere, a final statement that only serves to raise more […]
Cheering on evil: Maduro’s American supporters
by Egoli “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke’s words were as apt in the 1700s as they are today. As someone who witnessed weeks- long protests outside the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC, I might add, far less […]
Africa setting pace with free trade pact
As with Africa’s widespread early adoption of mobile digital banking, so with free trade agreements, it would appear. Long a laggard in global deals and regional governance, the vast, diverse continent is now setting the pace with a pioneering free-trade pact amongst scores of African states, notes Alexander Hammond in The National Interest. […]
Canceling Death Tax Could Help Save Forests
Yes, you read that correctly: abolishing U.S. federal estate tax, commonly derided as the “death tax,” would help preserve large amounts of privately owned forest in the U.S., according to an intriguing piece by Ross Marchand in Real Clear Policy. Death tax currently stands at 40% of the value of the […]
Merit-Based Immigration Reform Shouldn’t Sideline Families or Refugees
A new attempt at immigration reform looms, the RAISE Act, touting “merit-based” credentials – but reform supporters should beware of the proposed reform’s limits on immigration based on family connections and refugee status, Sam Peak argues in the OC Register. In fact the reform, contrary to its intended purpose, would likely end up […]
Net Deforestation Nearing Zero
One of the most charming qualities of trees is their ability to absorb atmospheric CO2, and the loss of large tracts of forested land is widely imagined as a contributing factor to global warming. Except it’s just not true, as Alexander Hammond points out in Human Progress, noting that environmental activists’ claims about […]
China’s swine fever epidemic is so bad it’ll make your blood clot
In Foreign Policy, veteran science writer Laurie Garrett presents a devastating picture of the potential impact of China’s swine fever epidemic. Garrett connects the dots from dying pigs to President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, arguing that escalating tariffs are poised to combine with the spreading virus to wreak havoc on markets for pork, […]