Economists debating inflation in the United States are confronting a difficult challenge: stripping out volatile price changes to gauge underlying pressures. The most common measure of underlying or “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, has been hard to read during the pandemic. The traditional measure came into …

In perhaps the most predictable column of the year, the Wall Street Journal this week featured a column by Walter Russell Mead declaring it’s “Time to Increase Defense Spending.” Using the Beijing Olympics and the potential Ukraine War to push for funneling ever more taxpayer dollars into military spending, Mead …

Libya’s political jostling is intensifying as the parliament prepares to announce a new Prime Minister. Despite the incumbent Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh’s refusal to step down has pushed ahead with plans to again extend a transitional period and delay any elections. In addition, the maneuvering comes after December’s collapse of a …