We know Americans value independence and self-reliance. As soon as you graduate from high school in America, you are regarded as a grown-up and expected to be on your own. Upon entering college, often your parents will help you with either your tuition or living expenses, but rarely both. Of course, the extent of parental support differs by each family, and it is well known that partial financial support for a child’s college education is common in American society. Often, American college stude

WASHINGTON ― After the Egyptian revolution in February 2011, the U.S. had a good idea: Why not create an “enterprise fund” to make loans to small and medium-sized Egyptian businesses? President Obama announced the plan “to build networks of entrepreneurs” in Egypt in a speech on May 19, 2011. But more than two years later, the fund has yet to make a single investment. And the question is: What happened? The story of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund is another example of why almost nothing w

PARIS ― Bastille Day, the French national holiday, was glorious this year. The military parade, dominated by the celebration of “victory” in Mali and the joint participation of African and United Nations troops, had the perfection of a gracious, albeit muscular, ballet.The classical concert that preceded the magisterial fireworks that ended the day was the closest thing to a French version of the Proms in London, mixing light classical and popular songs. The Eiffel Tower imbued the evening with

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts ― The release of revised GDP data by the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics in late June seemed like an occasion for cheer, because growth had not quite been negative for two consecutive quarters in the winter of 2011-12, as previously thought. The point, as it was reported, is that a second UK recession following the global financial crisis in 2008 (a “double dip”) had now been erased from the history books, and that the Conservative government would take s

Can we please have a moratorium on the word “Likonomics”? Premier Li Keqiang’s plans to overhaul the Chinese economy have hardly earned such a grand moniker yet. Say what you will about “Thatchernomics” or “Reaganomics,” but Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan fundamentally altered the British and American economies. No one is rolling their eyes at “Aquinomics,” President Benigno Aquino’s thus-far successful prescription for the Philippines, the onetime “sick man of Asia.” By contrast, Likonomic