http://www.america.gov http://bit.ly/hCTm4f Building a social safety net Despite the global financial crisis, China is making a serious effort to improve its pension and health-care systems. (Finance & Development) Mon, 29 Nov 2010 03:15:01 -0500 http://bit.ly/hCTm4f http://ow.ly/2ZdnM Just a couple hundred trillion in off-balance-sheet liabilities… A Boston University economics professor’s blunt prognosis on what needs to be done to close the U.S. fiscal gap. (Bloomberg) Mon, 25 Oct 2010 06:21:51 -0400 http://ow.ly/2ZdnM http://ow.ly/2WMft Economic reality check Tim Jackson, the economics commissioner of the U.K. government’s Sustainable Development Commission, discusses economic growth and natural resource limits: “questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics . . . but question it we must.” (TED Talks) Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:03:40 -0400 http://ow.ly/2WMft http://ow.ly/2QRYX The North American unconventional energy boom Across the U.S. and Canada, huge sums are being spent to develop what one reporter calls environmentally risky energy sources. He asks: are we moving further from a clean-energy future? (Yale Environment 360) Fri, 08 Oct 2010 06:21:47 -0400 http://ow.ly/2QRYX