This week’s articles of note
“President Obama’s big drags,” Politico, by Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen
“The progressive crisis,” The American Interest, by Walter Russell Mead
“Politics’ fatal therapeutic turn,” Dissent, by Zelda Bronstein
“Health now: a provocation,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, by Mark Edmundson
“Why the gender gap won’t go away. Ever,” ...
Calling the Tea Party “terrorists”
As the debt ceiling negotations were heading down to the wire, the liberal criticisms of the Tea Party representatives in Congress got more heated. By the end, there was little holding back.
Democrat representative Mike Doyle, in a meeting attended by Vice-President Joe Biden, referred to the Republicans as “terrorists” (Biden ...
The real cause of the US debt crisis? Slow growth
The pantomime political debate about the debt ceiling is distracting attention from the parlous state of the productive economy.
Read my spiked article in full here.
Weak GDP: an economy on edge
The latest gross domestic product (GDP) data shows the US economy’s recovery has come to a virtual stop.
GDP grew at an annual rate of less than 1 percent in the first half of 2011. Revised ...
Tea Party: maybe crazy, definitely winning
In her Sunday New York Times column on the debt ceiling business, Maureen Dowd points out the many ways in which the Tea Party is succeeding:
Consider what the towel-snapping Tea Party crazies have already accomplished. They’ve changed the entire discussion. They’ve neutralized the White House. They’ve whipped their leadership into ...
This week’s articles of note
“An un-American response to the Oslo attack,” Salon, by Glenn Greenwald
“Behind economic hard times, fear of the new,” Washington Post, by Robert Samuelson
“Stinger: James O’Keefe’s greatest hits,” New York Times Magazine, by Zev Chafets
“When patents attack,” NPR: This American Life, by Alex Blumberg and Laura Sydell
Where the debt comes from
As Congress dithers over extending the debt ceiling, the New York Times has published a useful chart that indicates when the current $14.3 trillion debt originated, as well as who holds the debt.
The chart shows that $6.1 trillion of the total, or about 43 percent, resulted from actions during the George W. Bush ...
Debt ceiling debate: bad political theatre
Even more than the Eurozone crisis, the debt discussion in the US shines a harsh light on the dysfunctional nature of the modern political class.
Read my spiked article in full here.
This week’s articles of note
“What if the government defaults?” Slate, by Simon Johnson
“Mastering the machine: how Ray Dalio built the world’s richest and strangest hedge fund,” The New Yorker, by John Cassidy
“Why America’s young and restless will abandon cities for suburbs,” Fortune, by Joel Kotkin
“The world is not overpopulated,” Real ...
Debt ceiling talks: dysfunctional political class on display
There are two economic crises roiling the markets: the Eurozone rescue and the US debt ceiling negotiations. Although ostensibly economic in nature, both are essentially political crises as well. Of the two, it is more understandable why the European nations face difficulties: the Eurozone is a monetary union, not a fiscal or political ...
ABOUT SEAN COLLINS
I write about American current affairs for Spiked, the online magazine. I am a native New Yorker, and I divide my time between New York City and upstate New York.
In addition to articles for Spiked, The Australian and other publications, I contributed an essay, "BDS: Demonizing Israel, Destroying Free Speech," for the book Unsafe Space: The Crisis of Free Speech on Campus (2016). I also wrote a chapter on New York City's economy for the book London After Recession: A Fictitious Capital? (2012).
My writings have been cited in American Conservative, Arts & Letters Daily, the Financial Times, Fox News, the Huffington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the New York Times, Real Clear Politics, and the Times of London, among other media.
For more about The American Situation site, go here.
