America’s public pension plans make over-optimistic return assumptions
print-edition icon Print edition | Finance and economics Feb 7th 2019 PROMISING A PENSION is a long-term and expensive business, especially if the payout is linked to earnings. But whether the employer is private or public, the cost ought to be the same in the long run and so, you might assume, would be the…
Congress, India’s oldest political party, gains a new lease on life
ARUN SHOURIE, a former cabinet minister and acid-tongued pundit, once dismissed India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as “Congress plus a cow”. By equating prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalists with their secular rivals, he was implying that, since both of India’s biggest parties share such traits as cronyism and paternalist economics, all that really…
Pakistan’s rugged north-west sees an outbreak of pogonophilia
HOVERING ABOVE a plush barber’s chair in his small hair salon in Peshawar, a city in northern Pakistan, Muhammad Ijaz strokes a beard so intricately designed it verges on the preposterous. Hair swoops across his cheeks. A chinstrap of clean-shaven skin surrounds a thin goatee. “It’s never been done before,” boasts the 24-year-old with a…
South Korea’s conscientious objectors escape military conscription
LIM JAE-SUNG is a mild-mannered lawyer in his thirties with a fondness for monogrammed shirts and human-rights cases. Owing to South Korea’s strict military-service laws, he is also a convicted criminal with a prison record. Mr Lim refused to serve in the army after becoming involved with the anti-war movement sparked by the dispatch of…
A political union for east Africa?
AFRICA’S REGIONAL institutions do not lack ambition. The African Union’s master plan promises a rich, peaceful continent criss-crossed by high-speed trains. Eventually. Its target is 2063, a date well past the likely retirement date of all the bigwigs who signed the plan. Get our daily newsletterUpgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor’s…
Iran was not predestined to become a regional hegemon
FLUSH WITH victory at home in 1980, Iran’s new rulers turned their attention abroad. “I hope that [Iran] will become a model for all the meek and Muslim nations in the world,” Ayatollah Khomeini said. His wish did not come true. No other state has adopted the concept of velayat-e faqih, or Shia clerical rule.…
A Nigerian election pits an ex-general against a tycoon
NOTHING SEEMS awry on arrival at the Ajaokuta Steel Company near Lokoja in central Nigeria. Nestled in scrubland are rows of depots, mills and furnaces; the complex covers 800 hectares, or four times the size of Monaco. Inside the main building workers amble through the foyer, barely noticing a suggestion box. Get our daily newsletterUpgrade…
Four decades after its revolution, Iran is still stuck in the past
FOR A FEW tense moments it seemed as if the flight carrying Ayatollah Khomeini back to Iran would not make it. Two weeks had passed since the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had left the country amid enormous protests against his autocratic rule. Khomeini’s aides were eager for the ayatollah to return from exile in Paris…
Mom Says Babies Should ‘Give Consent’ Before You Change Their Diapers
It takes a village to raise a child and at the same time, they are cute and cuddly creatures. No matter how difficult they can be, parents will have to be patient with them, moms even more so especially with the feeding. They need the best in care. Still, one mother might have thought a…
Germany’s long expansion comes under threat
GERMANY’S EXPORTING prowess is so impressive that other countries seek to import even its policies. France recently passed labour reforms inspired by its neighbour to the east. British politicians periodically try to copy its vocational-training system. Governments far and near have sought to emulate the Mittelstand, its small and mid-size producers. Germany’s knack for producing…