this is an adventure

Our sister publication asks analysts whether the administration’s economic forecasts are too optimistic. They would have gotten a more interesting discussion if their query had been “Is the Pope Catholic?” Of course they’re too optimistic. In fact, the word optimistic is too optimistic. A better choice might have been “insane”.

“New Labour won elections but eradicated all that was good in the party’s traditions,” writes David Selbourne. Hybrid brands, the politics of the Third Way, privitization and globalism foisted on ex-Marxists by ex-Socialists – it all worked for a while, but now it fades under Gordon Brown. American Democrats, take note.

David Ignatius is concerned about the lack of response. “The culture of immobilism starts on Capitol Hill. These people are still working a four-day week, taking Fridays off so they can run home and tell constituents how diligent they are. They may talk about a crisis, but they don’t act like it’s real.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 146 years old, prints its last issue next week and transitions to online-only pub. Economists and newspaper execs predict doom even in major markets. The demise of these publications is in many ways a return to the mean, when only the hyper-local, time driven, or particularly useful niche publications thrived.