John Cassidy's Blog, page 39

The Pfizer–Allergan Merger Is a Disgrace

In an announcement on Monday morning, Pfizer, the big drug company, whose headquarters are on East 42nd Street, in Manhattan, said that it is merging with one of its competitors, Allergan PLC. Ian Read, a Scottish-born accountant who is Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive, said that the proposed deal, which is valued at a hundred and sixty billion dollars, would “create a leading global pharmaceutical company with the strength to research, discover and deliver more medicines and therapies to more people around the world.”

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Related:
Billions and Billions for Botox
Close Read: Falling to Earth

Terrorism in the Age of Twitter

In his influential 2004 book, “Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah,” the French political scientist Olivier Roy pointed out that what he termed Islamic “neofundamentalism,” despite its frequent references to the past and to the Koran, represents a very modern, even a postmodern, phenomenon. Emphasizing the role of the Internet in recruiting and sustaining jihadis, Roy said that this apocalyptic new ideology “valorizes the uprootedness of uprooted people” and provides them with a sense of belonging and meaning. The true believer, wherever he is, “remains in touch with the virtual community by sharing the same portable kit of norms, adaptable to any social context,” Roy wrote, adding that the Internet was “a perfect paradigm and tool of this virtual community.”

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Related:
Slide Show: Brussels Under Lockdown
Comment from the November 30, 2015, Issue
Cover Story: “Paris, November 2015”

Donald Trump and America’s Muslims

As you have doubtless noticed, the terrorist attacks in Paris have produced a rhetorical race to the bottom among the Republican candidates for President. Jeb Bush took an early lead in this descent by issuing a proposal that appeared to have been taken from the playbook of his elder brother George. Appearing on television over the weekend, Bush said that the United States should put together a multinational coalition to invade Syria, mash ISIS to smithereens, and knock off the Assad regime, and only then figure out how to establish peace and withdraw.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Open Letter to a Friend in Paris
The Mood in Paris After the Attacks
Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s Death in Paris

The Economics of Syrian Refugees

In the wake of last Friday’s attacks on Paris, much has been written about Syrian refugees, and the (remote) possibility that ISIS-affiliated jihadis might slip into the United States among the ten thousand displaced people (many of them children) that the Obama Administration has committed to taking in during the next year. In contrast with discussions about immigration generally, there has been less comment about the economics of the issue. There are many arguments in favor of settling refugees here—not least what President Obama, responding to the announcement by some state governors that they would not accept Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war, called “our values”—but from a financial perspective, too, there is little doubt that the U.S. has the capacity to absorb many more Syrian refugees, and that the long-term impact of such a policy would be positive.

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Related:
ISIS, Terrorist Sanctuaries, and the Lessons of 9/11
Putin’s Ambitions for the War Against ISIS
Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, November 18th

Jeb Bush’s Call for War

On Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press,” Jeb Bush said that it was time for the United States to go to war with ISIS, and to put together an international coalition to rout the jihadis from their strongholds in Syria and Iraq. “We should declare war and harness all of the power that the United States can bring to bear, both diplomatic and military of course, to be able to take out ISIS,” Bush, who is trailing badly in the G.O.P. Presidential polls, said. “We have the capabilities of doing this, we just haven’t shown the will.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Ted Cruz’s Religious Test for Syrian Refugees
None of the Democrats Has a Strategy for ISIS
Sunday in Paris

Bernie Sanders, Loud and Clear

From the beginning of Saturday night’s Democratic debate, Senator Bernie Sanders was very clear on what he wanted to talk about. He began with two sentences about the terrorist attacks in Paris, expressing his horror and disgust, then he moved onto his main message: “I’m running for President, because as I go around this nation, I talk to a lot of people. And what I hear is people’s concern that the economy we have is a rigged economy.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Where Clinton’s Post-Paris Debate Went Wrong
Trump’s “Pathological” View of Ben Carson
What to Read Before the Democratic Debate

Do the G.O.P. Debates Really Matter?

One of the more amusing exchanges at Tuesday night’s Republican Presidential debate came after Donald Trump boasted about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I got to know him very well because we were both on ‘60 Minutes,’ ” Trump said. “We were stablemates, and we did very well that night.” A few minutes later, Carly Fiorina tried to one-up the New York billionaire. “I have met him”—Putin—“as well,” she said, “not in a green room before a show but in a private meeting.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
More Tales from Dr. Ben Carson’s Life
Study: Average American Can Stand Four Seconds of Ted Cruz
When Donald Trump Met Edmund Burke

Policy Substance Intrudes on the Fourth G.O.P. Debate

Fresh from providing a welcome boost in the ratings for CNN, CNBC, and “Saturday Night Live,” the Save Broadcast Media Initiative, otherwise known as the 2016 Republican primary process, rolled into downtown Milwaukee on Tuesday night. The grateful host was the Fox Business Network, a venture that shares a name and a building, but not very many viewers, with the mighty Fox News Channel.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Study: Average American Can Stand Four Seconds of Ted Cruz
When Donald Trump Met Edmund Burke
How to Interrupt Jeb Bush

Why Did the Death Rate Rise Among Middle-Aged White Americans?

A week after it was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a paper by the Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton showing that middle-aged white Americans are dying in much larger numbers than they used to is still the talk of the town. Indeed, the discussion is only beginning. Based on what we know so far, Case and Deaton have uncovered a story that epidemiologists, economists, journalists, and policymakers have largely missed.

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Why Are So Many Veterans on Death Row?
The Fatal X

The New Job Figures and Janet Yellen’s Big Decision

You can’t argue with monthly growth of 271,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of five per cent. Wall Street’s response to the release, on Friday, of the U.S. employment report for October showed as much. The yield on Treasury bonds rose sharply as traders priced in a December rate hike by the Federal Reserve, which would be the first in almost a decade. Indeed, some analysts were speculating about a second quarter-point rise come March or April.

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Related:
Why the New Vatican Leaks Scandal Is Different
Exxon, Keystone, and the Turn Against Fossil Fuels
Daily Cartoon: Friday, November 6th