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Something Like That
David Cameron strains for euphemism when asked what Britons think of Sarah Palin:
“It’s hard for us to understand, if I can put it that way,” says Cameron, straining for understatement, about the Palin phenomenon, as we chat in his Parliament offices shortly after the New Year.
(h/t HuffPost)
Popularity: 2% [?]
Top Ten Insights: Harvard’s New Millennial Poll
Yesterday Harvard University’s Institute of Politics released a poll measuring Millennial opinion on the economy, politics, and social issues; as well as on their personal finances. Its main takeaway was the generation’s pronounced uncertainty on their personal finances, both current and what they expect in the future: Large majorities were worried about not being able to pay their rent or afford college; less than half believe they’ll end up better off than their parents.
Apart from the battery of questions gauging their economic uncertainty, the report measured some other trends interesting, encapsulating, and ultimately crucial to understanding the generation. The Top Ten follow:
10. After enjoying unprecented political influence in the 2008 elections, the generation’s progressives have ceded their enthusiasm advantage to its conservatives
‘More than two-in-five (41%) of Republicans are planning on voitng’ in the midterm elections, the poll finds, ‘compared …
Popularity: 2% [?]
Who Didn’t See That Coming? … Of The Day
The headline and a brief excerpt will suffice for this one:
Roy Ashburn, California State Senator, Says He’s Gay After DUI Arrest
[. . .] Ashburn, who consistently voted against gay rights measures during his 14 years in statewide office, came out in an interview with KERN radio in Bakersfield, the area he represents.
Popularity: 4% [?]
The Chicago Boys’ Legacy In Chile?
Salon’s Andrew Leonard compiles a few accounts that link the neoliberal economic policies the Milton Friedman set advised Pinochet to implement and the structures that did fall in the Chilean earthquake a couple of days back. One of them, a professor of architecture in Santiago, reflects:
Saddened as I am by the loss of life and landmarks, I am scandalized by the few modern structures that crumbled, those spectacular exceptions you keep seeing on the TV news. The economic bonanza and development frenzy of the last decades have clearly allowed a degree of relaxation of the proud building standards of this country. That’s likely why some new urban highway overpasses, built by private companies with government concessions, are now rubble. It’s a sobering lesson for the neoliberalism favored for the past 35 years, and a huge economic and cultural setback for the country.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Only So Many Long Views
Ezra Klein wonders why the Obama administration isn’t stocking vacancies at the Fed:
Every smart economic observer I know is baffled by the administration’s failure to nominate anyone for the two slots that have been empty for months. Those are votes and arguments that the administration could have put at the Fed’s table and has simply chosen not to. Now they’ve got three open positions and no nominees. One of those positions is the vice chairmanship, which can go to an inside candidate (speculation centers around Janet Yellen, governor of the San Francisco Federal Reserve), although that would mean replacing that candidate on the board.
I’m not versed enough in this stuff to have any candidates in mind. But the critique of the administration’s strategy on jobs that I find compelling is that they’ve not had any coordinated strategy when it comes to the Federal Reserve. Bernanke’s
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Popularity: 4% [?]
