And when all rationality fails, just make sure you’ve got a lot of money. Actually, so long as you’ve got that and have put some of it into the right pockets, you don’t need rationality at all.
The Article: Gore: Democracy in America has been ‘functionally corrupted’ in CNN Global Public Square.
The Text: Fareed speaks with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore about democracy in the United States and why he thinks the campaign finance system needs an overhaul.
You feel as though a combination of special interests and money have essentially completely corrupted democracy in America.
Functionally corrupted it, yes. You know, we’re told that corporations are people, that money is speech and that might makes right. And we know all of [these] things are contrary to what the United States of America is all about. But because our elected representatives now have to spend most of their time begging rich people to give them money, begging corporations and special interests to give them money, they spend more time worry about the effect of their actions, votes and speeches on these big donors, some of them anonymous, than the time they should be spending thinking about how to serve the interests of the publics they represent.
And you were in the Senate. So when you are raising all that money, when – it’s gotten much worse since you were there – those people are expecting certain lines and regulatory codes, lines in the tax code, correct? They’re not paying $50,000 to have breakfast with a congressman because of his personality.
And some more warm n’ fuzzy truths about the US successes, check out this chart.
The Article: America’s economy: Looking Better in The Economist.
The Text: WHEN Barack Obama was sworn in four years ago, the economic figures were terrifying. A financial crisis and a savage recession were in full swing, and house foreclosures were soaring. The day of his inauguration, panic about the banks sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 300 points. At the start of his second term, by contrast, the Dow hit a five-year high, while a widely followed index of investor fear called the VIX reached a near-six-year low (see table).
The change in mood is understandable. The financial crisis and recession ended more than three years ago. The housing market is firmly on the mend. Employment is growing. The euro zone, though feeble, is no longer about to collapse. And the threat of home-grown crisis appeared to recede when Republicans in the House forbore to use the threat of default to extract spending cuts. On January 18th they said they would raise the Treasury’s statutory ceiling until May 18th; previously, the Treasury had expected to run out of borrowing authority as early as mid-February.
On average, the economy performs less well in a president’s second term than in his first (see chart). That pattern probably does not apply to Mr Obama. Since his first term was so difficult, the next, by rights, ought to be better.
Well, if and when the United States decides that waterboarding is no longer humane/effective, the CIA can always show this video at detainment camps.
