The Trap of the “New Normal”
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on July 21st, 2012 11:08 pm by HL
The Trap of the “New Normal”
Joel Kotkin, New Geography
This year’s presidential election is fast becoming an ode to diminished expectations. Neither candidate is advancing a reasonable refutation of the conventional wisdom that America is in the grips of a “new normal” “” an era of low growth, persistently high unemployment and less upward mobility, particularly for the working class.Certainly recent economic news of slowing growth and job creation bolster the pessimists’ case. But Americans may face far better prospects than portrayed by our dueling presidential mediocrities. Let’s…
World Braces for Fallout from Syria
Financial Scandal Scorecard
Joe Nocera, New York Times
First up: Peregrine Financial Group. This long-running fraud, which has apparently been going on almost as long as the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, came to light when the firm's founder and longtime chief executive, Russell Wasendorf Sr., tried to commit suicide a few weeks ago. (He failed.) Helpfully, he left a lengthy note that laid out what he had done. Peregrine, you see, is a commodities broker, and Wasendorf had been stealing the money that customers had on deposit with the firm. As you'll no doubt recall from the very similar MF Global scandal, where $1.6 billion in…
Movie Theater Rampage Jolts Nation
Bustillo & Banjo, Wall Street Journal
A gunman wearing a gas mask and sheathed head-to-toe in body armor opened fire in a theater packed for a midnight showing of a just-released Batman movie, killing at least 12 people and wounding 58 others.Police in this suburb just east of Denver quickly arrested the alleged shooter, James E. Holmes, a 24-year-old graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Colorado Denver with no known criminal history other than a speeding violation.
