Elections

THE UPSIDE OF UNEMPLOYMENT Our last issue described PaineWebber’s “happiness index” for bonds, which goes up when unemployment increases. But unemployment, we’ve now learned, can prolong your life too. Our impeccable source is a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research: “Are Recessions Good for Your Health?” by Christopher Rohm (NBER Working Paper […]

Turning power back to the states has gained wide support. But there’s a reason for national decisions: One state’s solution may aggravate another state’s problems.

One important way to judge what a presidential candidate might do if elected is to look at his record while in office-his publicly announced positions and his skill in commanding loyalty, wielding authority, and winning public support. But it is also important to look at the networks of campaign contributors, lobbyists, political organizations, and policy […]

Washington, D.C. On April 27, Al From, the president of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), and Will Marshall, the president of the DLC’s Progressive Policy Institute, had lunch with John Swee ney, the president, and Steve Rosenthal, the political director, of the AFL-CIO. These four people had met but had never talked amicably or seriously […]

F or the first time in 18 years, Britain, barring some cataclysm, will soon elect a left-of-center government. Starting with their name and extending to a wide range of policy and rhetorical stances, Tony Blair’s New Labour Party has much in common with Bill Clinton’s New Democrats. Even before the recent changes in the Democratic […]

We’ve gotten our hearts broken before. Clinton, many of us hoped, was really a closet progressive who somehow also attracted moderates. His fellow southern governor, Jimmy Carter, looked to be a fine reformer for the post-Watergate era. But both presidents left legacies more conservative than liberal. Both were anti-party men. Both failed to use their […]