John Cassidy's Blog, page 44

The Trials of Jeb Bush

If you’re following the 2016 Presidential campaign closely (and, at this early stage, I’m not suggesting that’s necessary), you’ll find an interesting subplot. While much of the media is focussing on the rise of Donald Trump and, to a lesser extent, Bernie Sanders, the two pre-race favorites, Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, are continuing to focus on each other. At the start of this week, the Clinton campaign put out a video highlighting what it said were Bush’s “extreme ideas about immigration” and claiming that he was following Trump’s lead. On Thursday, the Bush campaign released a video highlighting Clinton’s e-mail travails and promoting Bush’s upcoming e-book, ”Reply All,” which will contain some of the e-mail exchanges he had when he was the governor of Florida.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Daily Cartoon: Friday, August 28th
The Trump Doctrine: “We Want Deal”
Actually, Hillary, Hearts Do Change

A Hedge-Fund Manager’s Challenge to the Fed

For some reason, Janet Yellen, the chair of the Federal Reserve, decided to skip this year’s annual Fed conference in Jackson Hole, where monetary policymakers from the United States and abroad get together with some prominent academics to discuss the big issues of the moment. That’s a pity. With global markets gyrating wildly and worries about the Chinese economy growing, there is a lot of uncertainty about whether the Fed will go ahead and raise interest rates next month. If Yellen were in Wyoming, she could use her speech to lay out some of the Fed’s current thinking.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Stock Market’s Dive Is Global and Rational
What’s Behind the Overwrought Reaction to the A.I.G. Verdict?
How Will the Economy’s “Lost Decade” Play Out in 2016?

The Stock Market’s Dive Is Global and Rational

In any stock-market dive, two questions immediately arise: How far will it go? And is it justified on the basis of economic fundamentals? Obviously, the two questions are connected, but they aren’t the same.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, August 25th
The Method in the Market’s Current Madness
You Really Don’t Need To Work So Much

Five Theories of Donald Trump

On Friday night, Donald Trump and his red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap headed down to the Ladd-Peebles football stadium in Mobile, Alabama, where, in a long and rambling address, he regaled a crowd estimated by police and fire officials at around twenty thousand people. Among other subjects, he spoke about his big lead in the polls and joked about holding the 2016 election early. “I’d like to have the election tomorrow,” Trump said. “I don’t want to wait.” In another sign of the progress he is making, one of Alabama’s two Republican senators, Jeff Sessions, greeted Trump onstage and praised his tough stance on immigration.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Twenty Thousand Considered Disappointing Turnout for Racist Event in Alabama
Greece’s Necessary Election
Planned Parenthood Means Fewer Abortions

Greece’s Necessary Election

On the very day that Greece received the first tranche of its new bailout from the European Union, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has decided to resign and call a general election, which will be held next month. Until then, the country will be led by a woman, Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou, the president of Greece’s Supreme Court.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Bernie Sanders’s Next Challenge
Psychologists Urge People With Low Self-Esteem to Watch G.O.P. Debate
Jindal Says He Didn’t Want to Be in Lame Debate Anyway

Amazon and the Realities of the “New Economy”

First up, an admission: like tens of millions of Americans, I am a member of Prime, Amazon.com’s program that charges ninety-nine dollars annually for unlimited shipping and other benefits. Originally, I used Barnes & Noble’s Web site for purchases of books and other media products. But when we had a family, my wife and I couldn’t resist the convenience of one-stop shopping and delivery for books and everything else. A couple of years ago, after reading about the harsh working conditions at some of Amazon’s warehouses, I considered cancelling Prime. The fact that I didn’t get around to it perhaps reflects laziness and lack of empathy on my part, but also a collective-action problem. What difference would one cancelled membership make?

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, August 18th
Amazon Chief Says Employees Lacking Empathy Will Be Instantly Purged
Can Jet.com Take on Amazon and Win?

Trump Is Crushing the G.O.P. Lilliputians

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, or at Jeb Bush’s campaign office, when the latest opinion poll from Fox News came in over the weekend. It showed Donald Trump in first place, with twenty-five per cent of likely Republican voters backing him. Ben Carson, the surgeon-turned-politician, was in second place, with twelve per cent. And Ted Cruz, the Texan ultra-conservative, was in third, with ten per cent.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Is Bush Right About Clinton and Iraq?
The G.O.P.’s Problems Go Well Beyond Trump
The Three Faces of Trump

Bernie Sanders’s Next Challenge

In December of last year, I quoted a statement Bernie Sanders made as he launched his “Economic Agenda for America,” a twelve-point plan designed to tackle wage stagnation and promote high-paying jobs. “We have a corporate establishment whose greed is destroying the economy, a political establishment which is beholden to billionaires, and a media establishment which largely ignores the major issues facing working families,” he said. “We need a political revolution.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
“Straight Outta Compton” Is Straight Outta 2015
Sanders Shamelessly Pandering to Voters Who Want to Hear Truth
Does Hillary Clinton’s College Plan Go Far Enough?

China’s Long Minsky Moment

In the wake of Beijing’s decision to devalue its currency this week, the scuttlebutt that has been circulating in western financial circles for months has made the front of the Times: an article by Neil Gough, datelined Hong Kong, relayed concerns that the Chinese economy probably isn’t growing at the official annual rate of seven per cent, and that, in fact, the official figures are so unreliable that it’s impossible for outsiders to figure out what’s really happening.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Melancholy Pop Idol Who Haunts China
Turmoil in the Taliban
The New Economics of Climate Change

The G.O.P.’s Problems Go Well Beyond Trump

I am interrupting the ongoing Donald Trump circus to bring you a couple of public-service announcements. To be sure, they aren’t as titillating as speculating about whether Megyn Kelly and Sean Hannity are talking to each other. But if we are really interested in the outcome of the election in November, 2016, and the ultimate welfare of the country, they are much more significant. Taken together, they show how the G.O.P. is facing a dilemma that goes well beyond the fact that, for now, its Presidential primary has been hijacked by a self-promoting megalomaniac.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Three Faces of Trump
An Exile from Iran on the Beaches of Australia
The G.O.P.’s Misogyny Primary