Shinzo Abe. The Man. The Myth. The Legend,

The U.S. Senate passed the Panglossian-titled “Every Child Achieves Act,” a replacement for the “No Child Left Behind Act” of George W. Bush. The bill “did away with the…mandate of Adequate Yearly Progress, required use of measures in evaluating student success, provided greater access to early childhood education and included a measure to audit and streamline assessment.” (neaToday)

OPEC met today in Vienna to discuss whatever oil cartels discuss behind closed doors. Their major decision was to not curb production, sending oil prices to a 7 year low. Nobody is certain what the future of OPEC will look like now that low oil prices are mopping up many firms. (Bloomberg)

The Supreme Court refused to hear a Second Amendment challenge. It was about s “challenge to a Chicago suburb’s ordinance that banned semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines” RBT is cleaning up her caseload. (NYT)

Apparently, Japan isn’t in a recession at all! Revised data show the country pretty well grew at an annualized 1% rate in the third quarter. Shinzo Abe is feeling very justified right now. (Financial Times)

Japanese visage via Shutterstock