Twenty-two years ago, almost to the day, thousands in Prague's Wenceslas Square roared, "Havel to the Castle." Days later, like a house of cards, Moscow's puppet government collapsed. On December 29, 1989, Vaclav Havel, the dissident artist who had begun the year in prison, took the oath of office as...

PRAGUE -- Vaclav Havel was stooped and frail last week when he opened his annual Forum 2000 at the glittering Zofin palace beneath Prague Castle. While the voice of the iconic former Czech president is weakened by illness and the burden of 75 years, through these yearly events Havel still...

While there is no magic bullet to solve the three-year long housing crisis, Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve are doing all they can to help. The massive $600 billion purchase of treasury securities announced last Wednesday initially has had a positive impact on long-term interest rates. Bringing mortgage rates...

It was a glorious affair at the Kennedy Center Monday night when 662 of the best public school teachers in Washington, DC were recognized for their achievements. College professor and vice-presidential wife Jill Biden, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman and Meet the Press moderator David...

A couple items in the news suggest that the new normal of sluggish growth is making its way through the troubled U.S. economy.

On Oct 16, one hundred or so members of the United Auto Workers picketed their own union headquarters in Detroit to protest an agreement that allows...

The short answer is probably yes, but it is too early to tell. However, there can be no doubt that the teacher accountability reforms championed by Rhee are under enormous pressure.

Wednesday's press conference where Rhee announced her resignation after 3.5 years as Washington's education czar was surreal. Flanked...

If it is true that housing leads the economy into recession and similarly leads the way out, then the hard times are likely to continue for several more months. Dr. Doom, New York University professor Nouriel Roubini, told an American Enterprise Institute forum Wednesday that even though the recession technically...

It is ironic that in the same week obituaries are written for the euro currency, the European Central Bank is breaking ground on a futuristic headquarters in downtown Frankfurt. Some ask will there be an ECB when the glass and steel skyscraper is completed in 2014?

The euro, the...

Pity the poor Greeks and beware of getting what you wish for.

When after earlier failure Greece was finally allowed into the euro zone in 2001, people cheered. Two thirds of the ten million Greeks enthusiastically welcomed the end of the drachma and the arrival of euro notes and...

Three and a half years into the worst home price decline in living memory, there is still no evidence that a bottom has been reached. Housing economist Bert Ely told the conference of business economists meeting in Arlington, Virginia Monday (March 8) that the housing market still hasn't bottomed. Nationwide,...

Poland is the Cinderella of the world economy. A ruin of decayed communism 20 years ago, Poland by the late 90s was among Europe's fastest growing economies. In 2009 it was the only European economy to register growth.

What accounts for this miracle is inspired leadership, bold action, and persistence...

As forecasters update their economic predictions for the year, the majority view seems to be that the recovery is fragile and it is not yet time to withdraw emergency fiscal stimulus. The International Monetary Fund, in its January 26 forecast, says "A premature and incoherent exit from supportive policies may...

More than Italian heritage links Sergio Marchionne, the Fiat chief who also heads Chrysler, with his illustrious predecessor Lee Iacocca. Separated by 30 years, both men arrived at Chrysler in their 50s, facing the challenge of rescuing a company that quite literally was at death's door. Each believed a turnaround...

Warren, MI - Here in southeast Michigan the great recession feels more like depression. The region's unemployment rate is 17% and rising. Already the highest jobless rate of any metropolitan area, the carnage will worsen in 2010, as several still operating auto-related plants are slated to close.

Michigan never emerged...

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe's reformist finance minister, knows something about living on the edge. In July, a brown envelope containing a live 9mm bullet arrived in his mail. A message inside read, "prepare your will." A year earlier the successful 43-year-old lawyer arrived back in Zimbabwe from Johannesburg only to be...

Istanbul: In bustling Istanbul, the city of 15 million that straddles Europe and Asia, headscarves -- from austere greys to fashionable red plaids -- have sprouted like spring flowers. Where once there were few, now perhaps a quarter of adult women wear some form of head covering. Observing the starkly...

Istanbul, Turkey -- Over three days in early October, top economic policymakers plus several hundred global bankers held parallel meetings at posh hilltop venues overlooking the fabled Bosporus, where Europe ends and Asia begins. Serial discussions analyzed the 2007/2008 financial collapse, the measures put in place to clean up the...

On a late September morning in Washington, top Czech and Russian officials voiced strikingly different assessments of world economic conditions. Neither the September 21st remarks of Czech President Vaclav Klaus nor of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov attracted media attention. Reflecting just how dramatically the world has changed since...

In the span of just ten months, key developing countries have accomplished what they could not achieve in the previous half a century: They have shouldered aside the staid 7 nation club of Euro-Atlantic nations plus Japan and taken seats at the top table of economic decision making. With its...