China to let yuan rise, all the world’s economic problems solved
Or so you might think, based on what China’s critics have been claiming up until China’s latest announcement.
For nearly the past two years, China peg its currency, the yuan (also called the renminbi), to the US dollar. On Saturday the Chinese central bank revealed that it would end this ...
This week’s articles of note
“Can Obama shut down the internet?” Daily Beast, by Philip Shenon
“The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks,” Salon, by Glenn Greenwald
“Inside the dire financial state of the states,” Time, by David Von Drehle
“Iran nuclear deal exposing the shifting distribution of power,” Axis ...
Obama: the Gulf between words and deeds
Instead of all the dithering, lofty rhetoric and tough talk, the US president should be honest about the need to keep on drilling.
Read my spiked article in full here.
Debating nuclear power
In this TED video, Stewart Brand and Mark Jacobson debate the need for ...
Unfinished business (2): European banks
The latest quarterly review of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) compares today’s European sovereign debt crisis with the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The BIS understands the European crisis as similar to the early phase of the credit crunch, in 2007.
Unfinished business (1): US banks
In a perceptive “Heard on the Street” column, the Wall Street Journal notes that credit continues to contract, despite government stimulus and Federal Reserve monetary expansion. The Journal says that a more thorough restructuring is needed if the US is to avoid a Japan-style “lost decade”.
Bank loans and leases have ...
Democrats can’t count on Obama’s support in mid-terms
The Democrats look like they have a tough time ahead of them for the congressional mid-term elections in November.
In the Sunday New York Times Magazine, Matt Bai raised the question of whether President Obama will provide leadership and support for his fellow Democrats. Bai, an astute observer, writes:
Obama ...
This week’s articles of note
“America’s right: the risks of “Hell no!”, The Economist
“‘The time we have is growing short,'” The New York Review of Books, by Paul Volcker
“Crisis analysis: views from a non-risk manager,” Risk Professional, by Michael J. Panzner
“The end of men,” The Atlantic, by Hanna Rosin
“The death ...
“Team America” goes to South Africa
(Hat tip: Marbury)
“Addicted” to gadgets?
There’s been much written lately about the impact of electronic gadgets on our everyday lives.
First, there have been reviews and articles about Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Second, the New York Times ran a long feature on Monday called “Hooked on ...
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.
