Jay-Z’s “Empire State”: not the anthem to modernity we need
James Harkin’s recent comment piece in The Guardian, “Jay-Z’s hymn to modernity”, does not get the significance of this rap mega-hit exactly right. Jay-Z’s “Empire State ...
This week’s articles of note
“What is it about 20-Somethings?” The New York Times Magazine, by Robin Marantz Henig
“Washington, we have a problem,” Vanity Fair, by Todd Purdum
“The clash of civilizations at Ground Zero,” goteborg-posten, by Kenan Malik [republished on kenanmalik.com]
“America: land of loners?” The Wilson Quarterly, by Daniel Akst
“Bob Dylan, ...
Alaska’s faux libertarian economics
At last, we have a legitimate criticism of Sarah Palin and her fellow Republicans in Alaska. But it’s worth noting that Alaska is just an extreme case of the US economy’s dependence on state support.
In Thursday’s New York Times, Michael Powell wrote about how Republican politicians in Alaska have ...
The Culture War over the Ground Zero mosque
It’s hard to know who’s worse in the NYC mosque debate: the opportunistic, anti-Muslim right or the Muslim-loving, masses-fearing liberals.
Read my spiked article in full here.
This week’s articles of note
“The point of no return,” The Atlantic, by Jeffrey Goldberg
“Newt Gingrich: The indispensable Republican,” Esquire, by John H. Richardson
“The Golden State’s war on itself,” City Journal, by Joel Kotkin
“Postcard from Detroit,” n+1, by Mark Binelli
“The defeat of Prop 8 is a Pyrrhic victory,” spiked, by ...
The unpopular political class
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that “voters are disenchanted with the political establishment in Washington”. Positive feelings for both major parties are at new all-time lows: the Democrats are at 33 percent, and the Republicans at 24 percent. There’s also greater pessimism about the economy and the ...
A tale of two recessions?
David Leonhardt’s article in today’s New York Times paints a picture of diverging fortunes in our “Great Recession”: some groups (a minority) are doing very badly, while the majority remain employed and are in fact benefiting from gains in purchasing power.
He notes that, to a greater extent than in previous downturns, those made unemployed have remained jobless ...
Charlie Rangel shouldn’t resign (at least not yet)
New York representative Charlie Rangel spoke with emotion and at length on the floor of the House yesterday, giving what some describe as a “trainwreck” of a speech.
Rangel ...
Steven Slater, folk hero for our times
Steven Slater appears to have captured the imaginations of many Americans.
Slater is the Jet Blue flight attendant who quit his job in dramatic fashion. As his plane had arrived but was not yet ready to de-board at JFK, a passenger got up early to grab her bag from the overhead ...
Phelps on innovation
In an interesting op-ed in Saturday’s New York Times, Edmund Phelps, the Nobel-prize winning economist at Columbia University, called for a “focus on fixing the structural problems, that, unresolved, will stymie the economy over the long haul”. It is defintely worth reading.
Like many economists, Phelps criticizes Keynesian ideas about insufficient ...
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.
