Last year I traced the explosion of greed and selfishness since the 1980s to the self-indulgence that developed out of the gradual morphing of the 1950s and early-1960s movement for group rights into an assertion of personal rights. Kurt Andersen, in a July op-ed in the New York Times, seems to join in this analysis: […]
Charles Peters
Charles Peters is the founding editor of the Washington Monthly.
Posted inJuly/August 2012, Magazine
Tilting at Windmills
The bias toward seeing pro-Obama bias Arthur S. Brisbane, the ombudsman for the New York Times, wrote a column this spring urging his paper’s reporters to take “a hard look at the president,” implying that they had not been doing so. His main evidence of pro-Obama bias dated from the 2008 campaign and the president’s […]
Posted inMagazine, May/June 2012
Koch d’etet… The liberal Republicanosaurus… Romney’s attack machine…
Wonder why? The Discovery Channel recently ran an hour-long documentary on the Costa Concordia disaster <more> A ray of hope “Fewer graduates of elite Ivy League schools are choosing careers in finance,” reported the New York Times recently <more> “It’s a great idea, but …” As a veteran observer of clever bureaucrats, I have come […]
Posted inMagazine, May/June 2012
Tilting at Windmills
Wonder why? The Discovery Channel recently ran an hour-long documentary on the Costa Concordia disaster. If the name of the ship’s owner, Carnival Cruise Lines, was mentioned, it was so sotto voce as to go undetected by my ear. A ray of hope “Fewer graduates of elite Ivy League schools are choosing careers in finance,” […]
Posted inMagazine, March/April 2012
Highballing at Bain Capital… Groundhog Day in D.C. … A Bastille Worth Storming…
With heroes like these… The Bain con Goldman Sachs is our compass Some things never change One SWAT too many There’s something about Marco Did the Kennedys buy West Virginia? Jodi and Michelle Ravitch vs. Rhee Quality, control Doesn’t sound wise Groundhog Day in D.C. Back in the saddle again A Bastille worth storming Jaded […]
Posted inJanuary/February 2012, Magazine
Casino Jack knows… Longing for Bill… JFK’s best and worst
Casino Jack knows what he’s talking about Memories of Bill Life inside the 1 percent The best think JFK ever did The worst thing JFK ever did Why he had to appear tough Justice in coal country Credit where credit is due Moonshine morality The Pentagon is a spoiled brat A bad trade Pension rackets […]
Posted inMagazine, November/December 2011
David Brooks’s mistake… Barack Obama’ successes… And his critics and their choice in 2012
Hidden capital Consider the alternative The company you keep They know not what he does The takeover Christie as cynic Regulation is not the problem The danger of doing nothing Learning on the job When going public was bad for the public The tune-up How both sides got wiser Medical laissez-faire Who’s in charge? How […]
Posted inMagazine, March/April 2012
With heroes like these …
It is now well known that Apple’s Chinese suppliers have employees who work twelve hours a day, seven days a week, and are housed in dorms with, according to the New York Times, as many as twenty people crowded into a three-room apartment. Banners on the factory walls warn: “Work hard on the job today […]
Posted inMagazine, March/April 2012
The Bain con
One of the most common tactics employed by defense and other contractors is called “lowballing.” They win government contracts by making the lowest bid and then, once the work has begun and it is too late for the government to change contractors, they suddenly discover additional “unforeseen” costs that result in their having to raise […]
Posted inMagazine, March/April 2012
Goldman Sachs is our compass
Similar to my qualms about Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, I am puzzled that the Human Rights Campaign appears to believe that the cause of gay marriage gains moral authority from its endorsement by Lloyd Blankfein.
