With the economic crisis/collapse and the incapacity of leaders to effectively resolve it, there is a profound and existential fear gripping the modern world. According to columnist Jean-marc Vittori of France’s Les Echos, Western-style democracy, which has long been considered the most advanced system of governance, may be irretrievably unraveling. For Les Echos, Jean-marc Vittori writes in part: Global...

The odd set of circumstances that has led to a credit downgrade of U.S. debt, a weakened dollar and hence a stronger yen, is setting off alarm bells in Tokyo and around the world. This editorial from Japan’s Asahi Shimbun explains the phenomena to readers and comes close to begging Washington to do something to reverse the trend, which is damaging Japan’s post-quake recovery. The Asahi Shimbun...

Is it time for the United States to stop standing up for human rights and democratic reform in other nations and start taking its own advice at home? According to this article by the thought-to-be-fictitious Communist Party columnist Ding Gang, U.S. presidents should stop inflaming China by meeting the Dalai Lama and selling weapons to democratic Taiwan, and start figuring out how the U.S. fits into a 21st...

The shooting down of an American helicopter carrying the elite Navy SEALs in Afghanistan has been described as the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. See here… A Pakistani newspaper says that the Abbottabad raid by US Navy Seals was not the first venture into Pakistan. The team had surreptitiously entered the country on ten to twelve previous occasions, the influential...

How badly does the United States want to maintain the value of the dollar? According to columnist Nazanin Amirian of Publico, what has been behind most recent U.S. wars is not human rights or weapons of mass destruction, but the imperative of beating back all challengers to the dominance of the greenback as the world’s currency. For Publico, Nazanin Amirian writes in part: When Bush invaded Iraq in...

What message should the United States government take away from the first credit rating downgrade in its entire history? According to this bluntly-worded editorial from Xinhua, the state news agency of America’s largest creditor, the U.S must break its ‘addiction’ to borrowed money, the political ‘wrangling’ in Washington must end, and China’s dollar denominated assets must be protected. The...

FOR THOSE WHO CAME, BUT COULD NOT STAY While you and I were being born, growing “in the little bread oven”… as it was often said back then… there were other little babies across the world, suddenly thrust into real ovens, and they were not allowed to grow any more. Don’t tell me that that is the past and none of our concern. This is in cellular memory, and we are here to make certain that we speak for...

Are we witnessing a collapse in faith in paper currency – and hence, the very social contract society is based on? For Germany’s Die Welt, historian Michael Sturmer warns that unless a way is found to restore confidence in the currency, the days are numbered for democracy and the way of life we have all come to expect. For Germany’s Die Welt, Michael Sturmer writes in part: This is not just...

Now that the White House and Congressional lawmakers have agreed to raise the debt ceiling, there is considerable concern in other nations about the bipartisan “super committee” that will be charged with the next round of budget cuts. According to this editorial from the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japanese are not only concerned that the lawmakers will be unable to agree, but that continuing disagreement...

Does the acrimonious process of raising the U.S. debt ceiling demonstrate the genius of the American system in action? According to this editorial from Brazil’s O Globo, the deal arrived at by feuding Republicans and Democrats was a lesson for other nations – particularly Brazil – about getting ahead of debt and tax-related issues. The O Globo editorial says in part: There will always be...

Will the U.S. Supreme Court rule according to its tendency to favor corporate America, or will it strike down recent state law that cracks down on undocumented immigrants in the United States – which would undercut the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? Columnist Arturo Balderas Rodríguez of Mexico’s La Jornada warns that the undocumented can’t count on the Court to protect their ‘fundamental...

Can it credibly be said that George W. Bush and U.S. neoconservatives are partly responsible for the emergence of Norwegian terrorist and mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik? According to columnist K. Selim of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, Western media has been careful not to draw the right conclusions about where a man like Breivik really came from. For Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, K....

Delegitimizing those who win elections is not strictly an American preoccupation. According to this article by Louis Bassets of Spain’s El Pais, the struggle over the debt ceiling that is apparently winding down in Washington has analogues in other venues and countries, and is a trend that is pushing the world toward anarchy. For El Pais, Louis Bassets writes in part: Living on the edge and challenging...

Have U.S. lawmakers lost the plot over the last few weeks? This editorial from Sweden’s Upsala Nya Tidning offers members of the U.S. Congress some practical advice about what to do about the U.S. debt ceiling, and some comparative politics just to remind them that America isn’t the only developed country struggling with debt and social safety net reform. The Upsala Nya Tidning editorial says...

Should President Obama stop allowing himself to be ‘made a fool of’ and present Republicans with a ‘fait accompli’ on the U.S. debt ceiling? For Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, Matthias Ruch argues that Republicans have only one goal – to defeat Obama – so he implores the president to stop playing the ‘fool’ and resort to the 14th Amendment of the...

Are people who warn of serious consequences in case of a U.S. default exaggerating? Not according to economist Sergio Sebold, who tells readers of Jornal Do Brazil of the dire consequences which will ensue if America fails to maintain the reliability of the world’s sole ‘zero-risk asset’: U.S. Treasury bonds. For Jornal Do Brazil, economist Sergio Sebold writes in part: Ever since the Declaration...

As members of Congress continue to rumble over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, they might spare a thought to the hundreds of millions if not billions of souls in other nations who are experiencing heartburn over their behavior. This editorial from Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun expresses concern that the debt ceiling brawl is hindering the recovery from Japan’s triple catastrophe last March. The Yomiuri...

The normally retiring newspapers of Japan, the country that holds the second largest amount of U.S. debt, are letting out some of there inner tigers in reaction to the prolonged debt ceiling debate. This editorial from Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun implores American lawmakers to act responsibly so as not to plunge the world into another major financial crisis. The Mainichi Shimbun editorial says in part: It...

What does the emergence of a man like Norway’s mass killer and self-professed Tempar Knight Anders Breivik mean? This editorial from Germany’s Berliner Morgenpost outlines the striking similarities between two men that would appear at first glance to be polar opposites. The editorial from Germany’s Berliner Morgenpost says in part: Although he calls himself a Knight Templar, killing and...

As the United States nears the August 2 deadline for raising its astronomical debt ceiling, much of the world is watching with dismay. Frankfurter Rundschau columnist Thomas Spang writes that Tea Party lawmakers are close to achieving what America’s enemies ‘have only dreamed of.’ For Germany’s Frankfurter Rundschau, Thomas Spang writes in part: Not even warnings from the [financial...

Is America going the way of ancient Egypt and the Soviet Union? Columnist Avtandil Tsuladze of Russia’s Yezhednevniy Zhurnal writes that America built a pyramid based on a gold-backed dollar. It then proceeded to loot it for all it was worth by making it the global currency of choice, rejecting the gold standard and exploiting its inflated value – until now. For Russian’s Yezhednevniy Zhurnal,...

Nice to see the incumbents doing so well.

Was this tragedy waiting to happen? Are Anders Behring Breivik’s murders another brutal manifestation of the hysteria that started building up post 9/11? George W. Bush and his team in the White House began an era of hatred and revenge, and have added enough fuel to create confusion and fire to last a few decades. We can still see widespread smoke, if not flames, in the West and elsewhere. Was the fire...

James Fallows sounds upset that bloggers jumped the gun in speculating that al-Qaeda or Islamic terrorists were responsible for the attack in Oslo yesterday: No, this is a sobering reminder for those who think it’s too tedious to reserve judgment about horrifying events rather than instantly turning them into talking points for pre-conceived views. On a per capita basis, Norway lost twice as many people...

Should China’s people feel pride that the state of California contracted over two dozen giant steel modules for the San Francisco Bay Bridge out to a firm in Shanghai rather than building them in America? In this article from the state-run Beijing Youth Daily, the author, Wang Chuantao, mixes in equal measure national pride over the progress this represents for the “Made in China” label,...