The rise of the new economy and skyrocketing prices of Internet stocks have caused a certain discomfort and ambivalence among older Americans, which in this case generally means anyone over 26. There is, of course, due acknowledgment of the great promise of e-commerce and even some national pride about the phenomenon (only in America!). But […]
Paul Starr
Paul Starr is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the Bancroft Prize in American history, he is the author of eight books, including American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now (Yale University Press, October 2025).
Posted inEconomic Policy
How Low Can You Go?
How to Zero Out the Debt J . Fife Symington III, the Republican governor of Arizona, is so conservative that he has sought to abolish the state’s Depart ment of Education. But, poor fellow, he’s broke, as the Economist recently reported. When he was elected in 1991, Symington said he was worth $10 million. Three […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Martian Plan
N ewt Gingrich thinks Americans need a new frontier to explore. He also believes in paying bounties to promote public objectives. Hence the proposal prepared at his invitation by space entrepreneur Robert Zubrin for a federal bounty of $20 billion payable to the first private organization that puts someone on Mars and brings that man […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
How Low Can You Go? Made of Sterner Stuff
MADE OF STERNER STUFF The Lewinsky investigation has put me to reflecting about the many opportunities for rectitude that were missed in our past. Americans have now been told, all too late, about the illicit sexual behavior of presidents from Thomas Jefferson to JFK. Just think of how much better informed and more righteous the […]
Posted inFeatures
How Low Can You Go?
PASS THE MALICE Five mistakes in a single sentence must be some kind of recordfor America’s greatest newspaper. On August 17, in an articleabout the new White House roles of Sidney Blumenthal and PaulBegala (“Clinton Looks for Inspiration From the Left”),the New York Times quoted the New Republic as saying about Blumenthal, “A beat is […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
How Low Can You Go?
YOUR NAME HERE As public broadcasting has long shown, there is a thin line between philanthropy and advertising that is well on its way to being completely erased. Consider the recent proliferation of corporate logos on endowed professorships, as reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Stanford has a Yahoo! chair of information systems technology; […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
How Low Can You Go? Viagravated Assault
VIAGRAVATED ASSAULT Early demand for Viagra, the new potency pill from Pfizer, has been so enormous that it has caused worries about an unexpected rise in health care expenses. Newspapers have reported the weekly sales of Viagra the way they earlier reported the gross for Titanic. In April one urologist was quoted by the Washington […]
Posted inFeatures
The Defining Issue
For liberals, it’s the lost crusade. For conservatives, it’s the emblematic case of overweening big government. Perhaps more clearly than in any other issue, federal action to achieve universal health coverage brings out ideological and partisan differences in America. In the early 1990s, health care became a defining conflict for the nation, and so it […]
Posted inArticle
Vulnerable Washington
In Washington, it could have been much worse. As a military strike, while the terrorists’ attack succeeded in New York, it failed in the capital — but for reasons that we cannot depend upon to protect us in the future. The bravery of a few passengers on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania prevented it […]
Posted inFeatures
The War We Should Fight
Let there be no doubt that America is justified in going to war against what President Bush describes as terrorism of “global reach.” After September 11, we have to assume that any group willing to kill thousands of people in the World Trade Center’s twin towers would be willing to use weapons of mass destruction. […]