Today’s links to interesting news and analysis…
- We are slow learners: “New Research on Mortgage Modifications and Principal Reduction“, Calculated Risk, 6 January 2010 — Two years of futile policy measures lead to research that shows what was already known before the mortgage crisis began in 2007 (% equity is the best predictor of default rates). We’ll have to get sharper if we hope to survive (let alone prosper) in the 21st century.
- Let’s close our eyes and pretend: “Eurabian Follies – The shoddy and just plain wrong genre that refuses to die“, Justin Vaïsse, Foreign Policy, January/February 2010 — Europe’s culture is already changing in response to a small fraction (5%?) of Muslins; the author sees no reason a 2x or 3x increase would accellerate that rate of change.
- Mark Steyn responds to Vaïsse: “Nothing to See Here“, National Review Online, 6 January 2010
- Both parties are dying. Today’s example of Republican insanity: “The party of crazy“, Steve Benen, Washington Monthly, 6 January 2010.
- Here’s another, even better, example: “Style over Substance“, Steve Benen, Washington Monthly, 6 January 2010.
- It’s really a government problem, not a military one (NASA has it also): “The Military’s PowerPoint Problem“, Matthew Yglesias, blog of ThinkProgress, 6 January 2010. Read the comments, esp the links to other articles here.
- “The Second Decade – The World in 2020“, Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch, 5 January 2010 — Sound thinking about geopolitics, ending with fashionable doomster speculation about climate.
Quote of the day
“Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It’s called ‘rain’.”
— attributed to Michael McClary (no source found)
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