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One unhappy lesson we’ve learned in recent years is that economics is a far more political subject than we liked to imagine. Well, duh, you may say. But, before the financial crisis, many economists — even, to some extent, yours truly — believed that there was a fairly broad professional consensus on some important issues.
Over at The Washington Post, the usually sensible Greg Sargent endorses the notion that divisions among Democrats are “mostly trumped up.” The tension between the Wall Street wing of the party and the Warren (as in Elizabeth) wing is an overblown fiction of a press corps desperate for some action.
It’s true that the prior divisions on social issues have dissipated, as liberals have swept the field. Obama’s halting attempts to wean the US from its foreign wars have garnered widespread support. And on economics, Sargent argues that Democrats “largely agree on the menu of policy responses to the economic problems faced by poor, working and middle class Americans — a higher minimum wage, universal pre-K, higher taxes on the wealthy to fund a stronger safety net, job creation and job training — whatever the broader rhetorical umbrella is being used.” Even Hillary says she agrees with Thomas Piketty that extreme inequality is a “threat” to our democracy. Continue reading Economic Populism at Heart of Emerging Debate Among Democrats | Bill Moyers→
PHILADELPHIA — The man in the hospital bed was playing video games on a laptop, absorbed and relaxed despite the bustle of scientists on all sides and the electrodes threaded through his skull and deep into his brain.
The man, Ralph, a health care worker who asked that his last name be omitted for privacy, has severe epilepsy; and the operation to find the source of his seizures had provided researchers an exquisite opportunity to study the biology of memory. Continue reading Probing Brain’s Depth, Trying to Aid Memory | NYTimes→
Wendy Davis takes local view on border, chemical safetyWendy Davis, Texas state senator and Democratic candidate for governor, talks with Rachel Maddow about Greg Abbott’s change in Texas policy on chemical plant safety, and how to deal with the influx of unaccompanied undocumented minors across the border.
Wayne Slater, senior political writer for the Dallas Morning News, talks with Rachel Maddow about Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott allowing chemical plants to keep their contents secret, a move that benefits Koch Industries, and a campaign donor.
I first heard Georges Moustaki’s “Le Métèque” when I was six or seven. I couldn’t possibly have understood the lyrics in their entirety without an adult’s life experience, but there were parts, however, that struck me viscerally, as I heard it for the very first time. I knew the “metic” was me, too, even before I fully understood what it meant to be me. Continue reading The Metic ( Le Métèque )→
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