Fed Head—An Insider’s Take on the Financial Crisis
Say this for Alan S. Blinder: the man has not been jaded. His new book on the Wall Street meltdown, After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead, is animated by a lay person’s sense of wonder and—at times—horror at the country’s financial mess. READ MORE >>
Plastic People
Rough Trade
IF YOU think Congress is worse than ever, you weren’t around in 1930. It was then Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff—a piece of protectionist folly that raised the levies on nearly nine hundred categories of imports. Britain, Canada, and various nations in Europe retaliated—that is, they erected barriers to American goods and foreign goods in general. World trade collapsed, and the ongoing economic slump turned into the Great Depression. READ MORE >>
Debt of No Honor
Paper Tigers
IT WOULD BE hard to find three families who have supported democratic principles around the world with more resolve than the Sulzbergers, the Grahams, and the Bancrofts. The first two scarcely need introduction. The Sulzbergers, of course, control The New York Times Company; Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the family’s current sovereign, is both chairman of the board and publisher of its most prized asset, The New York Times. READ MORE >>
