Midwest
It is not surprising that the focus of the fighting around public employee benefits and collective bargaining is in the industrial Midwest. As noted in the Brookings report The Vital Center: “Today’s employee benefit, job, and income security systems, like so many of the nation’s economic and social practices, were forged in the Midwest." READ MORE >>
Are Republicans Blowing Their Midwest Chance?
I've debated with Bill Galston whether or not Ohio has some singular importance to President Obama's reelection chances. (I say no -- it's getting more Republican while other states have grown more Democratic.) But the Midwest in general is certainly very important. And clearly, doing better in Ohio is better than doing worse. READ MORE >>
Bill Daley's Seediest Exploit
[Guest post by James Downie] READ MORE >>
We Almost Lost Detroit
Washington—Who could have imagined that the bailout of the auto industry, one of the single most unpopular moves by the Obama administration, would become one of its best talking points? READ MORE >>
In Michael Lewis’ disturbing but illuminating book unearthing the machinations behind the global financial crisis, The Big Short, one of the Wall Street investors enmeshed in creating the web of sub-prime mortgage-backed securities and related derivatives reports on how he knew the bubble was going to burst. READ MORE >>
Jeremiah, American-Style
Hope in a Scattering Time: A Life of Christopher Lasch By Eric Miller (Eerdmans, 394 pp., $32) READ MORE >>
A Jobless Decade? Depends Where
The first decade of this century was a dud for job creation nationwide. With a weak recovery from the 2001 recession followed by the Great Recession, the nation as a whole gained almost no jobs during the decade (actually, there was a 0.3 percent increase). That made the aughts the first decade since the Great Depression without any substantial job growth. READ MORE >>
Ex-Village People
However Americans feel about the federal government, they are generally happy with their local governments. Last month, a CNN poll quantified this disparity: 26 percent of people trust the feds all or most of the time, about a third feel that way about their states, and 52 percent trust their localities. READ MORE >>
The World Without Obama
If you've been watching the hit TV show "Lost,"then you're familiar with the concept of parallel universes. That is, alternate realities in which history turned out differently, because people made different decisions. READ MORE >>
