There’s been a dust-up in the literary world as Horace Engdahl, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said yesterday that American authors are too “isolated,” “insular,” and “ignorant” to compete for the Nobel Prize this year. Predictably, the American literary establishment is outraged, with folks like David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, urging […]
Dana Goldstein
Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.
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THIS BLOOMBERG BUSINESS.
Mike Bloomberg has been a capable mayor of New York City and is an advocate for a number of experimental progressive public-policy initiatives, on issues ranging from decreasing the use of cars to fighting poverty to improving sexual health. Now Bloomberg is ignoring the advice of his closest political confidantes to push for a third […]
Posted inEducation in America
BEWARE THE IRRATIONAL FEAR OF SPENDING.
Education Week, the paper of record for the edu-wonk community, reports today on fears that education funding will be slashed because of the likely Wall Street bailout. Education lobbyists and advocates are planning on arguing that better education for children will boost the economy in the long-run. (Experts actually disagree about whether schooling can or […]
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MEANWHILE, IN JOURNALISM…
As the markets plummet, Creative Loafing, the company that owns some of the better city alternative weeklies in this age of Village Voice Media conglomeration, has filed for bankruptcy. Good luck to our friends at Washington City Paper… —Dana Goldstein
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WILL THE BAILOUT BREAK THE BUDGET? NO.
Politico‘s Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen wonder today whether Obama will have to scale back his health plan or McCain will have to give up on cutting taxes for the wealthy because of the budgetary impact of the bailout. This has become a dominant new meme in this election; the idea is that the candidates […]
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ASSESSING THE BAILOUT BILL.
Now that there is a final bailout plan to be voted upon, we can assess how the negotiations went for progressive public policy. In other words, how focused on “Main Street” is this bill, really? Will it help prevent foreclosures and provide assistance to the millions of Americans taken in by deceptive marketing offering them […]
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MEA CULPA FROM CONSERVATIVE PALIN SUPPORTER.
Well golly gee. Conservative syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, once a Sarah Palin enthusiast, turns on the Republican V.P. nominee today, saying she’s unqualified and in over her head. McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive […]
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GORDON BROWN ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS.
He supports a big bailout. Here’s what the British prime minister said at the Clinton Global Initiative today: I’ve got no doubt … that this program to bring liquidity into the American system … whatever the details … is in principle not only the right thing to do, but is the essential thing to do […]
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ANDREA MITCHELL AND ALAN GREENSPAN.
An essay by Megan Garber in the Columbia Journalism Review suggests that NBC/MSNBC pull Andrea Mitchell off the financial crisis beat because of her marriage to Alan Greenspan. Mitchell might be overly concerned, Garber suggests, with protecting and enhancing her husband’s legacy as Fed chairman in light of the current meltdown. And sources could be […]
Posted inEducation in America
OBAMA AMBITIOUS AT CGI.
The Clinton Global Initiative is an opportunity for the world’s wealthy to make philanthropic commitments, and in that spirit, Obama used his appearance by satellite today to make his own four “commitments” on the Clinton Foundation’s priorities of climate, poverty, education, and global health: 1. An 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, […]
