[Uri Dromi] Voice of protest in Israel says enough is enough

For the last few weeks, Israel has been experiencing an unprecedented phenomenon: Hundreds of thousands of people are rallying in the streets, demanding social justice. The numbers are mind-boggling: 300,000 Israelis is the equivalent of 18 million Americans. And this is not a one-shot rally. The pr

Aug. 18, 2011

[William D. Cohan] Ending the moral rot on Wall Street (Part 3)

The following is the last installment of a three-part article on Wall Street corruption and remedies for it. ― Ed.Since 1970, when financial companies began selling shares to the public, the industry has ensnared the rest of us in repeated crises of its own making. There was the crash of 1987 and th

Aug. 18, 2011

[William Pesek] Economic suicide is only a scandal or two away

The Philippines can be a scandalmonger’s paradise. At this very moment, editors are pressed to decide which controversy goes on the front page: the suicide story, the car scam, Chopper-gate or the asylum follies. Each of them sells newspapers and each is linked to a central figure: Gloria Arroyo, wh

Aug. 17, 2011

[Simon Johnson] The real U.S. crisis is not the debt downgrade

The U.S. has a fiscal crisis, but not the one that everyone is talking about. Standard and Poor’s proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the U.S. still has the world’s preeminent reserve currency. When shocks hit ― and investors have no idea who or what might be next in line for a downgrade ― they bu

Aug. 17, 2011

[William D. Cohan] Ending the moral rot on Wall Street (Part 2)

The following is the second installment of a three-part article on Wall Street corruption and remedies for it. ― Ed.Was all of this immoral, unethical and illegal behavior a mere aberration, brought on in the years leading up to the financial crisis by an atypical combination of greed and hubris? Sa

Aug. 17, 2011

[Bob Keeler] Chipping away at Environment Protection Agency

Long before he became our president, Ronald Reagan was widely known for a line he delivered often: “At General Electric, progress is our most important product.” What he didn’t emphasize was GE’s other important product: pollution. The huge company is fully or partly responsible for dozens of Superf

Aug. 16, 2011

[William D. Cohan] Ending the moral rot on Wall Street (Part 1)

The following is the first installment of a three-part article on Wall Street corruption and remedies for it. ― Ed.What will it take for Americans to finally get the message that much of Wall Street, in its current form, is a corrupt enterprise in need of a top-to-bottom overhaul, a task that the ye

Aug. 16, 2011

[Pankaj Mishra] London’s rioters are Thatcher’s grandchildren

I am often asked, when in the U.S. or Europe, whether I feel frightened while traveling through such obviously dangerous places as Afghanistan and Kashmir. It’s hard for me to explain, and so I never confess, that I feel more insecure on the streets of Tower Hamlets, a London borough just south of T

Aug. 16, 2011

[J. William Leonard] When national secrecy gets out of hand

Every 6-year-old knows what a secret is. But apparently our nation’s national security establishment does not.Consider this strange case from earlier this year. On June 8, the National Security Agency, a top-secret government spy agency, heralded the “declassification” of a 200-year-old publication,

Aug. 15, 2011

[Seth Masket and Hans Noel] Don’t look to a third-party candidate to lead U.S.

Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Barack Obama and an independent and pragmatic president beholden to no party, ideology or interest group are walking down the street. At the same time, all four spot a dollar bill on the ground. Who gets the dollar?Obama, of course. The other three are figments of your

Aug. 15, 2011

[Rachel Marsden] A disconnect on immigration

Ipsos has just released a poll measuring citizens’ perception of immigration in 23 countries. Despite what politicians around the world would have their countrymen believe, the average person isn’t buying the benefits of current immigration policy.The poll proves that our collective gut is indeed in

Aug. 15, 2011

[Jeff Dietrich] Home sweet shopping cart for those on skid row

It looked like an anti-terrorist takedown: five cop cars, 10 police officers, a yellow skip loader and a 5-ton dump truck. They screeched to a halt and blocked off 6th Street in front of our soup kitchen in downtown Los Angeles. But their target this spring was not a suicide bomber or a hidden nucle

Aug. 14, 2011