Hirsh: The Missing Link on Obama's Economic Team | Newsweek Voices - Michael Hirsh

Climate Week: Don’t Celebrate Too Soon
Sharon Begley 9/23/2009 12:00:00 AM
This is Climate Week here in New York City, so if you have been swept up in the excitement over Hugh Jackman's lending his celebrity to the cause of averting a catastrophic greenhouse effect ("people in developing countries have contributed the least to climate change and are suffering the most from it," he said at Monday's opening ceremony at the New York Public Library), or President Obama's speech at the United Nations Tuesday warning of “irreversible catastrophe" if the nations of the world do not cut carbon emissions, you might feel optimistic that the nations of the world will get their acts together enough to produce a climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. Forgive me for being the skunk at this greenhouse-gas-enhanced garden party.
'The Most Popular Politician on Earth'
Mac Margolis 9/22/2009 12:00:00 AM
He grew up so poor, he didn't find out what bread was until he was 7. That was Lula's age when he climbed onto a flatbed truck with his Brazilian dirt-farmer family and all their possessions and made the 1,900-mile journey from the country's northeastern dustbowl for a life in the slums of São Paulo. He dropped out of school in the fifth grade, shined shoes on the street, and went to work in a factory at 14, losing a finger to a lathe in an accident on the graveyard shift at an auto-parts plant. Eventually he rose through the rank and file to become an internationally respected union leader. A military junta ruled Brazil back then, and strikes were illegal, but he defied the generals and the bosses and practically shut down the continent's industrial powerhouse in the name of the steelworkers.
Dumb Money
Stefan Theil 8/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
"If we want to become a strong economy again, the best thing we can do is have an educated workforce." Few would object to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's explanation of why Washington is funneling $100 billion to schools and universities as part of February's giant stimulus package. Indeed, other countries are following suit, with Britain, Germany, Canada, China, and others making new education funding part of their anticrisis strategies.
America Still Rules
Jeffrey E. Garten 7/25/2009 12:00:00 AM
The recovery is here, tepid and uncertain as it may be. It may not feel much like one yet, especially in the U.S. and many parts of Europe, where trade is still moribund, foreclosures are rising, and unemployment is high. Yet both the IMF and the OECD, which have been cautious in their predictions this past year, say an upturn—however modest—is in sight. This month the IMF increased its global growth estimate for next year from 2 percent, which it projected in April, to 2.5 percent. And the OECD revised its growth projections for rich countries upward for the first time since the crisis began. Fears about a collapse of the international financial system have abated, and despite continued protectionist pressures, there's reduced concern in government circles that the world will descend into a 1930s-type calamity.
The Most Misunderstood Man in America
Michael Hirsh 7/18/2009 12:00:00 AM
Anya Stiglitz was in the middle of a Pilates class in Central Park on an April morning when her cell phone rang. Glancing down, she saw "202" pop up—no number attached—and knew it was the White House. An aide to Larry Summers was on the line, looking for her husband, the Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Anya said she'd pass on the message to Joe—then went back to work on her abs. No big deal, she thought. People often call her when they want to talk to Joe, because even though he's spent four decades figuring out how the global economy works, he hasn't quite gotten the hang of voice mail. "He doesn't listen to his messages, so if you want to talk to him, keep calling," Anya says on his cell-phone recording.
Is the Economic Crisis a Sin?
7/10/2009 12:00:00 AM
One issue on which President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI agree is that people of faith are supposed to stand for economic justice. This idea is as old as the biblical command to "let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24).