Ryan Cooper

(This picture is from our 2004 cover story on Barack Obama, via Daniel Luzer at our College Guide blog.) Two things: first, we’re still doing our pledge drive. To quote from a previous appeal: But even though other magazines, newspapers, and Web sites are cutting back their coverage or shutting their doors altogether, we’re still […]

I’m having trouble coming up with a pithy name for the sign-off post, so you’ll have to be satisfied with this for now (suggestions welcome). 1. Matt O’Brian does a good piece on monetary policy through Star Wars quotes. 2. Matt Yglesias finds one that he missed. 3. Conservatives block a gay marriage law in […]

Citing the widely-repeated meme on the right that 47 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax (not to be confused with taxes in general), James Kwak has two theories: The first is that the modern Republican Party is funded by the very rich… The result is that the parties’ platforms now reflect the wishes […]

I think the most compelling response to my previous post was from FlipYrWhig: “Democrats” are a coalition between liberals, populists, defenders and champions of minority rights, and (especially in “red states”) this other kind of smiley pro-business Republican-who’s-not-hardcore-wingnut. It’s always volatile. But if Democrats insist on more discipline and more unanimity from their membership, those […]

In these days of painful paradigm-shifting in journalism, it’s more important than ever to help support solid, quality institutions. The Monthly trademark strength is farsighted, deep-thought journalism, which is often too far ahead to get a lot of attention, but is vindicated later. For example, we called the housing bubble in April 2004, documented in […]

While I’m having a late lunch, enjoy some pickings from around the web: 1. RIP Ray Bradbury. Henry from Crooked Timber names some of his favorite stories. 2. How the middle class enables the ultra-rich. Not sure how I feel about that one. 3. Paul Krugman is fast become a folk hero. Makes me wonder […]

Reading my posts and their comments* from yesterday about political power and elite intellectual failure, I think the points could be clarified, brought together, and strengthened. So here’s the essence. There’s a narrative among the elite DC insider media (think David Gregory, or Politico) that the way to get political power is to promise voters […]

Thomas Friedman wants a grand bargain (again): “If I were President Obama, I’d focus my entire campaign now on an effort to reforge a “grand bargain” with Republicans based on a near-term infrastructure stimulus tied with a Simpson-Bowles long-term fiscal rebalancing,” he writes. Maybe Friedman doesn’t remember, but Bowles-Simpson includes revenue increases and defense cuts. Those […]

So the big headline news last night was Scott Walker’s disappointing win in the recall election, though the Dems appear to have taken the Wisconsin Senate. But there were several other results worth noting. First, one Shmuley Boteach, a Rabbi, sex therapist, and former “spiritual adviser” to Michael Jackson, won the GOP primary for New […]

(My sincere condolences to Ed, whose stepfather died last night. RIP good sir. While Ed takes care of funeral arrangements, I’ll be kicking in a few more posts today.) So things are looking pretty grim. In Europe, Greece is circling the drain faster and faster; it could be broke by July. Martin Wolf titles his […]