Michael Lewis’s new book Boomerang is a short collection of Vanity Fair essays in which the author tours Europe to see how Iceland, Greece, Ireland, and Germany got into such a financial mess. His central thesis is that cheap credit offered “entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of
For those of us who are single and looking, the world is full of opportunities and just as full of all sorts of regrets. Reviews of three places with three men.
* UN finds systematic torture of detainees at sites run by Afghanistan's intelligence service and national police. * Iranian actress sentenced to 90 lashes for appearing in film about Tehran. * School lockers, "the latest frontier in nesting," carpeted and wallpapered. * Remnants of a 1953 European motorcycle tour. * Hendrik
* With neurochemistry proving surfing's transcendence, Sartre, Camus, and Freud can sure carve. * Neuroscience dissenter takes out the "neurotrash." * Belief or disbelief in a Being is a matter of faith. * Violent clashes in Cairo mask quiet moves by Egypt's military against democracy. * True crime: Serial
Last week a New York Times baseball blogger posted an entry about sports radio. He described an hour he spent one afternoon listening to stations in Detroit and Philadelphia, certainly through his computer. He said that NFL football dominates the call-in shows, even in cities that have baseball teams
During the 1990s, Steve Powers painted lauded graffiti across New York City as ESPO, and in 1999 published the dorm-room bookshelf staple, “The Art of Getting Over.” Here, a selection from his recent “Daily Metaltations.”
* Twenty-four killed in Cairo clashes between Coptic Christians and security forces. * Arab spring in smartphone circles finds war between IT staff and workers who use their own devices. * Hitchens: Pakistan is the enemy, "humiliatingly subsidizing [those who] sabotage us." * Naomi Klein lets Wall Street's occupiers
* Now a decade old, the Afghan war is little better than half over, far from reaching goals. * U.S. drone fleet infected with virus we shouldn't worry about—yet. * Nobel Prize-winning women were powerful because they directly confronted evil-doers. * Human sociability rituals like chanting and dancing
* The GOP consensus on recession-recovery is fundamentally wrong, but only Romney is even partially skeptical. * Breezy history of American fiscal policy finds the Tea Party battling Alexander Hamilton. * Fry: Those who label Jobs "salesman" or "showman" display their asininity. * Ten unicorns of China policy debunked.
The occupation of Wall Street has been heralded as a passionate grassroots movement (now beloved by celebrities) that is spreading nationwide and claiming to reflect America’s non-wealthy 99 percent (even if that same bracket includes most of the wealthy bankers on Wall Street). To put greed into sharper
