How Govt Failure Caused the Great Recession
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on December 28th, 2010 5:31 am by HL
How Govt Failure Caused the Great Recession
Perry & Dell, The American
The banking crisis that began in August 2007 shocked markets and precipitated the Great Recession. To fully explain the banking crisis, one must account for its timing, severity, and global impact. One must also confront a startling historical contrast. If we define “banking crisis” to mean bank failures and system losses exceeding 1 percent of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), we find that in the period 1875-1913, a period of marked expansion in international trade and capital flows comparable to the last three decades, there were only four …
A ‘Breeze of Change’ Blows in Helmand
Thomas Harding, Daily Telegraph
On Christmas Day, as on every other day this year, British troops stepped out to patrol central Helmand's pleasant, Provence-like countryside of tree-lined paths and streams "“ fortified on this occasion by turkey and the traditional Christmas shot of “gunfire” (whisky and tea).This is the 10th Christmas that UK forces have spent looking out on to Afghanistan's seemingly untamed landscape. But while no one is clamouring to say it "“ there have been too many false dawns "“ there is a feeling in the air that,…
Frank Rich Rewrites History
Byron York, Washington Examiner
Nothing irritates New York Times columnist Frank Rich more than Republicans who — in Rich's view — want to turn the clock back to the 1950s. That long-ago time in America was never the idyll it is sometimes portrayed to be, Rich believes, but rather a “phony nirvana” rife with racism, sexism, homophobia, and economic injustice.So it is surprising that in a new column, “Who Killed the Disneyland Dream?” Rich waxes nostalgic about…the 1950s. He tells the story of Robbins Barstow, a union official living in suburban Connecticut…
Why WikiLeaks Is the Death of Big Business
Noam Scheiber, New Republic
I confess that I'm torn. I had the same cranky reaction to Time's Person of the Year choice as pretty much the entire Internet: It's hard to see the calculation that makes Mark Zuckerberg more influential than Julian Assange in 2010. Still, there's something about this conventional wisdom that's annoying in its own right.When people riff about the impact of Wikileaks, you typically hear how it's forever changed diplomacy or intelligence-gathering. The more ambitious accounts will mention the implications for journalism, too. All of that's true and…
