social issues

When the Great Recession hit, the term “mancession” was coined in the US to describe the disproportionate amount of unemployment affecting males. By some counts men lost more than twice as many jobs as women (5.3 million compared to 2.1…

There is clearly something different about the Great Recession. Though it officially ended in June 2009, it lingers. We still see it in lives around us and it could definitely be sensed in President Obama’s State of the Union Address on…

Sozialtourismus (“Welfare Tourism”) has been named the most inappropriate word of the year in Germany. Behind the term is the concept of EU immigrants claiming state benefits without having worked and made social contributions themselves –…

London Mayor Boris Johnson puts it bluntly, “For the last 30 years we have probably built about half of the homes London needs. The problem is now a crisis.” Soaring home prices in the British capital are raising fears that the boom cannot…

In recent elections in Norway, Austria and Germany, there has been a pattern of left-wing parties either losing votes or failing to achieve their goal to get a majority that would allow them to lead a government. The situation looks…