Rx for Global Poverty- May 28, 2008 What's the world's greatest moral challenge, as judged by its capacity to inflict human tragedy It is not, I think, global warming, whose effects -- if they become as grim as predicted -- will occur over many years and provide societies time to adapt. A case can be made for preventing nuclear proliferation, which threatens untold deaths and a collapse of the world economy. But the most urgent present moral challenge, I submit, is the most obvious: global poverty.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/27/AR2008052702554.html?nav=r... Middle Class Jitters- May 22, 2008 We middle-class Americans are in a funk. "The overarching economic narrative of the 2008 campaign is the idea that life for the middle class has grown more difficult," writes Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center, which recently published a massive report on middle-class anxieties. By its survey, more than half of Americans believe they either have not moved ahead in the past five years (25 percent) or have fallen behind (31 percent). Pew pronounces this "the most downbeat short-term...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052102427.html?nav=r... Truth Serum on The Trail- May 14, 2008 It's been a blast, this presidential campaign. A great story, full of drama. But no one should think it's been honest. With the possible exception of Iraq -- a matter that compels candidates to face real issues -- the campaign has been an exercise in mass merchandising. Candidates make alluring promises (to "fix the economy," "defeat special interests" or "achieve energy independence") and offer freebies to voters (more tax cuts, health care, college aid). Complete the sale: That's the point.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/13/AR2008051302304.html?nav=r... Sensible Stimulus- May 7, 2008 It's an election year, and partisan acrimony has escalated. Democrats and Republicans portray themselves as the nation's saviors against all the programmatic atrocities of the other side. Can we find a refuge of common-sense agreement amid this self-serving political din Well, here's a proposal for the economy: Enact a temporary extension of unemployment insurance from the standard 26 weeks to 39 weeks.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/06/AR2008050602444.html?nav=r... |