The risks of debilitating cuts to our national-security budget will be a critical issue for Congress when it reconvenes after the August recess. While the media focus as Congress adjourned earlier this month was on the big-picture implications of the legislation lifting the federal debt-ceiling, we cannot lose sight of the difficult--and imminent--struggles just ahead in September.

Rather than engaging in wishful thinking about the relative merits of greater fiscal and political union, Europe's leaders should now be seriously thinking about plan B.

Many government employees are paid up to 30 percent more than those in the private sector.

Polls indicate that Americans would blame both Obama and Republicans if the government shuts down in two weeks.

The strained economic relationship between the United States and China poses a very real risk to the long-run economic outlook for the United States and the world, as China continues a dangerous and inexorable drift towards protectionist trade policies.

The rise of communication has made the old-style of convention a thing of the past.

China's currency is still egregiously undervalued, and neither the IMF nor the U.S. treasury secretary seems to want to do anything about it.

China is expanding its railways, but it needs to privatize its network to truly meet its transport needs.