Financial Times

In America and in many parts of the world it is assumed that the US will make an abrupt change of course after January 2009 when whoever replaces President George W. Bush takes the oath of office. To judge from the evolving platforms of the leading Democratic candidates, that assumption might prove overblown (given that most of the Republican candidates recently said they would consider the use of tactical nuclear strikes to stop Iran's nuclear weapons programme, this piece focuses… more

Earnings of the average US workers with an undergraduate degree have not kept up with gains in productivity in recent decades, according to research by academics at MIT that challenges traditional explanations of why income inequality is rising.The findings, which will be presented to the New America Foundation today, come amid widespread unease about the sluggish trend in middle class income growth, both in ab-solute terms and relative to the new superstar class of chief executives,… more

On Saturday the eight Democratic hopefuls for 2008 hold their second debate in the tiny state of New Hampshire. But if their first outing last month was anything to go by, critics of the way the George W. Bush's administration has handled the post-September 11 world may come away feeling short-changed.With the notable exception of Iraq, on which all the candidates favour a withdrawal of US combat troops within a year or so, few have directly challenged the… more

It is not often that record high petrol prices prove helpful to American politicians. But with prices now riding at more than $3 a gallon in many parts of the country, voters are listening ever more attentively to how their 2008 presidential contenders will tackle global warming...Among the Democratic candidates, however, there is intensifying competition to be the most radical global warming candidate. Almost all have signed up to targets of reducing America's carbon emissions by between 60… more

The controversial nature of Paul Wolfowitz‘s tenure at the World Bank can be traced to a culture of impunity and US exceptionalism that has characterised the Bush administration and dominated the direction of its foreign policy, according to academics and former officials.Critics agreed with the verdict of the World Bank special panel - set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the pay rise and secondment to the State Department of Mr Wolfowitz’s girlfriend at the bank - that… more

Pakistan may be heading into another of its cycles of mass unrest and political instability. The underlying pattern, which applies to both civilian and military governments, is that this is a patronage-based system in a poor country, with not nearly enough patronage to go around. Other factors, including democracy and religion, are present, but all are coloured by the politics of patronage.

No Pakistani regime ever has enough jobs and money to satisfy both the political elites and large numbers… more

Whether a Democrat or a Republican is elected in 2008, the time is ripe for a reassertion of the traditional Republican way of war in America. By that I mean the approach to foreign policy of pre-neo-conservative Republicans such as Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Colin Powell an approach that US President George W. Bush and the neo-conservatives have rejected in favour of a disastrous strategy inspired by cold war Democrats.

Neo-conservatives are far more likely to praise Harry… more

President George W. Bush will almost certainly veto on Tuesday a $124bn war-spending bill that the White House says would impose an “artificial deadline” on the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. The Democratic majority on Capitol Hill choreographed Tuesday’s expected veto to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the president’s “mission accomplished” speech in which he declared that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended”. But Mr Bush, who has only exercised his presidential veto… more

Just why Robert Levinson, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and now private investigator, should venture into Iran to meet a American fugitive wanted for murder in the US remains a mystery that the highest Bush administration authorities are trying to unravel.As the Financial Times revealed this week, Mr Levinson disappeared on March 8 after a six-hour meeting on the Iranian island of Kish with Dawud Salahuddin, an American who converted to Islam and was recruited by… more

Perhaps it is time to erect a new stone next to Adam Smith’s grave in Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh. Not to commemorate Smith, whose greatest monument is his masterwork, The Wealth of Nations. Rather, to mark the demise of the insitution Smith did so much to promote - the free market.

If you did not notice the free market’s passing, you were not alone. No television newscasts bemoaned the fact. The notice was hidden deep in a Competition Commission report on monopolisation… more