According to the cover of the Atlantic, the economic crapstorm we’re currently weathering is going to not only throw piles of people out of work and cause general misery, it’s also going to remake America’s geography. Richard Florida, who you might remember from his book “The Rise of the Creative Class,” asserts that regions like the Sun Belt, which experienced massive growth during the housing bubble, will be in dire shape in years to come, as will old industrial cities like Detroit. New York might take less of a beating, due to the big influx of creative types and industries other than finance, though frankly I think Florida might be overstating his case in that instance. Strangely, though the cover says “Toronto wins,” due to multiculturalism and a diversified economy (oh yeah, and Canadian banks are a hell of a lot better off than American banks), there’s barely any mention of the city in the article itself.
Michael Lewis, the author of “The New, New Thing,” recently rented out the biggest mansion in New Orleans, a house he’d lusted after as a boy and found overwhleming once he moved in. He also found that being inside a house thats way beyond your means, even if you’re renting it, says a lot about both the American psyche and the subprime mess the US currently finds itself in.
Matt Taibbi (who usually writes for Rolling Stone) has posted a cynical, angry and heartfelt screed on Smirking Chimp about what Sarah Palin’s candidacy says about middle-class America’s love of image over substance and blind consumerism over thoughtful discourse. It’s certainly biased and bile-filled, but it’s also exceptionally well written and not without some truth.
As seen above, Sarah Palin’s grasp of geopolitics leaves something to be desired. And there’s the outside chance she could be the President one day, so there’s that.
Rolling Stone has a great article up about how Bush, along with the Republican Party’s tendency to exploit and create polarity between Americans, has essentially ruined the party and flushed away a legacy that began with Reagan. It’s Rolling Stone, so it isn’t exactly the most unbiased source, but it’s a fascinating read.
For all the bluster and possible danger of Iran getting its hands on or building its own nuclear weapons, the country’s vast oil resources tend to be forgotten. High oil prices mean Iran can not only keep pursuing its nuclear ambitions with relative impunity, its also able to work around the sanctions thrown at it by the UN.
Peter Bergen, who wrote the excellent Holy War, Inc., has penned a mammoth investigative report for the Independent that points to the possible decline of Al Queda as a force in the Middle East. Interestingly, it’s not American military pressure but Muslim religious leaders who are turning the tide away from extremism. Al Queda’s predilection for slaughtering plenty of innocent Muslims along with whoever else they have on their hit list isn’t going down too well, and opinion i turning against jihadism. It’s interesting that after pulling off the most spectacular terrorist attack in history and subsequently evading the American military for the better part of a decade, the one thing Bin Laden and Co. didn’t account for is human decency.