Ryan Cooper

The big news today is the €100 billion bailout that the European Central Bank sent the way of tottering Spanish banks. Matt Yglesias says this is a big step forward: The key point is that though Spain will still have to abide by its existing austerity-oriented fiscal commitments, there are no new strings attached in […]

As readers may have noticed, I’m a big fan of Chris Hayes and his show. One more reason for that was present this morning, where he had the best discussion I’ve ever seen of monetary policy on TV: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy In case you can’t watch […]

On Twitter Bill Keller, former executive editor of the New York Times, flagged a piece by Steve Almond titled “Liberals Are Ruining America. I Know Because I Am One,” saying it was “Must-read liberal introspection.” Boy, I thought to myself, I bet this is going to be terrible. Yup: This, to be blunt, is the […]

Speaking of Jon Stewart, Jim Fallows flagged this excellent interview with former Bain executive Edward Conard, author of a new book lauding the virtues of private equity: The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook It’s a great interview, but not exactly for how Stewart picked him […]

The chatter today is about Mitt Romney’s comment explicitly saying that what America needs is fewer cops, teachers, and firefighters: Romney said of Obama, “he wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American […]

His new book Twilight of the Elites is coming out next Tuesday, and the Nation excerpted a section that gives you a flavor of the argument. He proposes that there is an “iron law of meritocracy,” where meritocratic institutions naturally become corrupted through elites desire to perpetuate themselves and avoid accountability: And we might ask […]

That’s it for now, folks! I hope everyone has a good weekend. Personally, I’ve got a few of Jim Fallows’ favorite beer to look forward to. Until tomorrow, enjoy some content scraped and filtered from around the web: 1. Suicides are surging among US troops. 2. Time to start saying it: Ben Bernanke is behaving […]

Ralph Nader sent the Monthly a copy of a letter he wrote President Obama, asking an interesting question: why doesn’t the president consider attending the Take Back the American Dream conference (which is coming up soon here in DC)? Can you imagine President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney refusing year after year […]

Today marks the last day of the first week of our annual pledge drive. We could operate quite comfortably if every one of our 2 million website visitors donated just $1. Will you pitch in to keep us around? Many people have already donated, some very generously. Everyone here at the Monthly is deeply appreciative […]

Over at the College Guide, Daniel Luzer has an idea, adopted by Senator Tom Coburn, to cut the Gordian Knot of student loan interest rates: Earlier in the week Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC) introduced the Comprehensive Student Loan Protection Act, S. 3266. The Coburn-Burr bill would set interest rates on all […]