Nick Ottens is a public affairs officer for the Dutch Animal Coalition and a board member for Liberal Green, the sustainability network of the Dutch liberal party VVD. He is a former political risk consultant and a former research manager for XPRIZE, where he designed prize competitions to incentivize breakthrough innovation in agriculture, food and health care. He has also worked as a journalist in Amsterdam, Barcelona and New York for EUobserver, NRC, Trouw, World Politics Review and Wynia’s Week, among others.
Just a few months ago, the British Conservatives had this year’s parliamentary election in their pockets. After more than ten years of Labour rule, Britons were tired with Gordon Brown while opposition foreman David Cameron lured as a fresh, “green right” alternative who promised to restore fiscal responsibility and British pride altogether. The Conservatives polled […]
Writing for The Huffington Post about the American health insurance industry, Bill Moyers and Michael Winship wonder, “Why is too much not enough?” Living in these United States, there comes a point at which you throw your hands up in exasperation and despair and ask a fundamental question or two: how much excess profit does […]
Four years after regaining control of the House of Representatives and two years after winning a supermajority in the Senate, the Democrats are hard pressed to defend their position in the 2010 midterm elections for Congress. The overwhelming rejection of Bush era Republicanism has quickly evaporated. The opposition was able to recover in the polls […]
After the next parliamentary elections, the only viable option may be a minority government.
Spain is the last major economy of Europe still mired in recession as its government remained committed to socialist doctrine throughout 2009. Massive deficit spending has only worsened the country’s predicament however, forcing Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to finally start reining in Spain’s mounting debt. Last month, Professor Niall Ferguson of Harvard University […]
Unions and regulations protect teachers who don’t do well, to the detriment of their students.
Speaking at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania on Monday, President Barack Obama launched a fierce attack on health insurers who, he said, “continue to ration care on the basis of who’s sick and who’s healthy.” The remark comes amid a renewed wave of renunciations of insurance companies as the administration attempts to push its health-care […]
Step by step, Americans’ freedoms and rights are violated. Is the country on a road to serfdom?
Although the United States are mired in recession and political disparity, the end of American ascendancy is not inevitable in the short run.
Republicans go about Washington infuriated these days. Their opposite numbers in Congress are proposing a little-used parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation to pass a final health-care reform bill. Reconciliation, say Republicans, isn’t supposed to be used for “regular” lawmaking. Right-wing commentators are similarly outraged and refer to reconciliation as “the nuclear option.” Is it? Reconciliation […]
Pestering China won’t get America anywhere. It must be consistent in its policy of “strategic reassurance”.
The region still far outperforms Europe and the United States in terms of economic growth.
Local elections show the nationalist Freedom Party and the right-wing liberals on the rise.
Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is “very disappointed” with the suggestion that a new consumer protection agency might be placed under supervision of the Federal Reserve. The Senate Banking Committee has been working on a financial regulatory reform bill for several months now. A new agency is to […]
A novel idea from British Conservatives: allow schools to set their own standards. Tory Politico reports that the party intends to put an end to government interference with so-called A Level certificates: the internationally-recognized standard for entry into British universities. The A Level’s reputation has been on the decline in recent years, leaving the prestige […]
