Archive
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Vol. 23 No. 4May 2012
Culture
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The Case of the Vanishing Middle Class
Timothy Noah's The Great Divergence deftly explores the roots and resurgence of American inequality. -
Charles Murray, the Long View
In 1984, the right's star public intellectual wrote the book that drove welfare reform. Coming Apart is an alibi for his own failed big idea. -
Vive la Mère
Is breastfeeding the new patriarchy? Elisabeth Badinter overstates her case—and overlooks what the French can really teach us about raising children. -
Part Two: Charles Murray, the Long View
Coming Apart caps three decades of faux concern for the poor. -
Dreams from My President
Three and a half years after his election, Barack Obama remains a mystery to many Americans. -
Power Failure
Two new books on why nations gain and lose wealth and power miss the real story. -
Rebuilding the World
Anthony Shadid's final book on the remaking of a house in Lebanon
Up Front
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Mad Money
With right-wing fears rising over the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, Republican state legislators want to create their own currencies.
Departments
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Three Roads from the Supreme Court
None of the options for health-care reform is ideal, but the most likely path forward would be through action in the states. -
The New Wave
Politicians going after birth control had no idea what they were in for.
Special Report
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Exporting the Anti-Gay Movement
How sexual minorities in Africa became collateral damage in the U.S. culture wars -
Still Ain't Satisfied: The Limits of Equality
The LGBT-rights movement should fight for economic and social justice—not simply de jure civil rights.
Features
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Don't Blame "Corporate Personhood"
Citizens United decimated what remained of campaign-finance reform, but the damage has been long in the making. -
The Man the Banks Fear Most
Wall Street's gone largely unpunished for its role in wrecking the economy—until New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman came along. -
The Death and Life of Detroit
Neighborhood groups are bringing the blighted city back, one block at a time. Will City Hall stand in their way?
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Vol. 23 No. 3April 2012
Culture
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A Nightstick Turned into a Song
Two new books and a documentary cue up the soundtrack of the black-power movement. -
Rachel Maddow, the Lovable Wonk
With the release of her latest book, Drift, MSNBC’s biggest star shows once again why she's captured the liberal imagination. -
Barbarians at the Transom
Lionel Shriver's The New Republic is a provocative and satiric novel about—of all things—terrorism. -
History Lessons
When historian Tony Judt cared passionately about a problem he was able to redefine its terms. Pity he didn't care about a few more things. -
What's the Point of College?
A critical look at the state of the American university -
Stacked Decks
The Titanic’s surprisingly timely centenary
Up Front
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The Other Glass Ceiling
Even in the Age of Obama, serious impediments remain for the most ambitious black politicians.
Departments
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Don't Fear the "T" Word
Raising taxes is supposed to be political suicide. Governors Jerry Brown and Martin O'Malley are proving otherwise. -
Hold Off on the Obama Victory Dance
The president's re-election chances have improved, but Obama faces severe tests on energy and national security.
Special Report
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The Myth of the Level Playing Field
The boast that American workers are naturally superior to other workers and would therefore “win” in any fair competition is problematic at best and at worst, a pander to our national delusion of exceptionalism. -
Not a Great Deal for Asia
The Trans-Pacific Partnership could end up hurting the broader economic interests of both the U.S. and smaller Asian nations. -
The Pacific Pivot
America needs to try something new when it comes to international trade. -
A Stealth Attack on Democratic Governance
Why are Obama trade negotiators pushing the extreme Trans-Pacific Partnership, and why is it being negotiated in such an untransparent manner?
Features
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How to Contain a Nuclear Iran
Regime change is a pipe dream. Is there a way to keep peace in Tehran without it? -
Six Portraits of Mitt
Just how rich is the Republican presidential candidate? -
Wolves to the Slaughter
The reintroduction of the gray wolf to the Northern Rockies was an ecological success story—until big money, old superstitions, and politics got in the way. -
The Age of Double Standards
American Airlines can declare bankruptcy and wipe away debt. But you can’t—and that’s just the beginning.
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Vol. 23 No. 2March 2012
Culture
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The Inside Track
Luck, HBO’s horse-racing series, is about the other American pastime: gaming the system. -
What It Feels Like to Be Poor
Katherine Boo chronicles the intimate realities of poverty in an Indian slum. -
Three Big Tax Lies
And two must-read new books that finally debunk them. -
Watergate Finally Gets Its Novel
Thomas Mallon's new fiction humanizes the ultimate D.C. scandal.
Up Front
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No Funds Left Behind
As states slash education budgets, private foundations have picked up the slack—and pushed some controversial reforms.
Departments
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Mitt Romney, Hero of Finance
Romney’s backers say he did the tough work needed to restructure the economy. Actually, he seized opportunities that the tax, securities, and bankruptcy laws should never have given him.
Special Report
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The Cost of Financial Favoritism
If Republicans and Democrats can't find common ground on giving assistance to small banks and Community Development Financial Institutions, they aren't liable to agree on anything. -
Freelance Nation
Progressives need to make government work better by helping out entrepreneurs and the self-employed. -
The Credit Drought
It's hard for small businesses to get a leg up in this sluggish economy. -
Too Small to Bail?
An interview with Sheila Bair. -
The Destruction of Black Wealth
Businesses owned by African Americans are suffering at higher rates than most during the downturn. -
Capital Ideas Online
Features
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Wall Street's Third Party
Will Americans Elect upend the presidential election? -
Susan B. Anthony's Hit List
How a group founded by anti-abortion feminists became a powerful foe of Democratic women.
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Vol. 1 No. 23February 2012
Culture
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Death Rattle
A new musical movement turns Mexican drug violence into catchy sing-alongs. -
Highlight Reel
The year in culture: the winners, the losers, and not spiking the football -
Harmony in the U.K.
A Londoner on Downton Abbey’s second season -
Scarcity Came to Town
Two leading minds on our lean times
Up Front
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A Tea Party State of Confusion
Republicans in South Carolina want to vote for an archconservative. But can they agree on one?
Departments
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GOP OED
This month's Noted -
The Fanatics of the Center
Moderation has its zealots, so convinced of their righteousness that they ignore the likely impact of their actions. -
What Do We See?
Penn State and the culture of silence
Special Report
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Minimizing Special-Interest Power by Maximizing Participation
Fighting back against restrictive voting-rights laws and empowering small donors can help reclaim elections. -
Tocqueville for Toffs
Common people have to reclaim democratic civic society from moneyed interests. -
The Clean-Election State
Connecticut's fight against corruption creates a model of transparent government. -
Citizen Bopp
Meet the lawyer on a crusade to topple all limits on the role of money in politics. -
Toppling the Money Empire
Grassroots movements can lead the way in taking big money out of politics. -
Calling for a Convention
Amending the Constitution is our best bet for fixing Congress.
Features
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The New Populists
The rise and fall of Zuccotti Park—and the future of the movement it birthed -
A Ninja in Our Sites
An aggressive federal enforcement effort targets online piracy—and threatens the open Internet. -
In Dire Health
Despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. medical system is near collapse. What will save it is a single-payer system and physicians in group practice.
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Vol. 22 No. 10December 2011
Culture
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Snobs Like Us
When did cultural disdain become the province of the left? -
Life, Monetized
In Deadly Monopolies, Harriet A. Washington asserts that corporations now own life itself. -
Cold Warrior
No single person encapsulates the drama, the deadly confrontations, and the self-destructive follies of the Cold War better than George Kennan. -
Manning Up
Rick Perry, the man George W. Bush pretended to be, personifies the allure of Texastosterone.
Up Front
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Moment of Conception
How a radical anti-abortion movement matured
Departments
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The Ties That Blind
A belief in American pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mythology lies at the heart of conservative attacks on the 99 percent. -
Protest and Possibility
"We are the 99 percent" has the virtue of being true as well as mobilizing.
Special Report
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Back from China?
Manufacturing once gave the U.S. its middle-class majority. Can it do it again? -
The Cost of Free Trade
Every president asserts that the next trade treaty will turn America into an export powerhouse, but that's just not true.
Features
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A State of Chaos
How political failures and stagnant institutions brought Greece to the brink of collapse -
A More Perfect Union
New York's Local 6 shows how organized labor can survive and thrive in the service economy. -
God Help Us
Will Rick Perry’s blend of Christian-right, small-government, and pro-corporate fervor land him in the White House? -
For Europe, High Stakes in Greece
Stabilizing one teetering economy won't end the eurozone's dance of death.
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