Opinion Columns

Nor is the Federal Reserve riding to the rescue. On Tuesday, Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, acknowledged the grimness of the economic picture but indicated that he will do nothing about it. And debt relief for homeowners — which could have done a lot to promote overall economic recovery — has simply dropped off...
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A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being. “Has the G.O.P. gone insane?” they ask. Why, yes, it has. But this isn’t something that just happened, it’s the culmination of a process that has been going on for decades. Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display either...
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 “The only answer can be denial,” argues Paul Gilding, the veteran Australian environmentalist-entrepreneur, who described this moment in a new book called “The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World.” “When you are surrounded by something so big that requires you...
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When people are so underwater, they find it hard to move to take new jobs, they find it hard to borrow or raise cash for education or start-ups, and banks become even more cautious about lending. Until we as a country figure out how to divvy up these losses on housing and let these...
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It was Michael J. Sandel, the Harvard University political philosopher. This news will not come as a surprise to Harvard students, some 15,000 of whom have taken Sandel’s legendary “Justice” class. What makes the class so compelling is the way Sandel uses real-life examples to illustrate the philosophies of the likes of Aristotle, Immanuel...
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Perhaps no Arab ruler responded as wisely to this year’s pro-democracy protests as the king of Morocco — although that is an exceptionally low bar. When other dictators in the Arab world answered protesters with gunfire, King Mohammed VI grudgingly accepted demonstrations, at least when he was in a good mood. His regime claimed...
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What if nutritionists came up with a miracle cure for childhood malnutrition? A protein-rich substance that doesn’t require refrigeration? One that is free and is available even in remote towns like this one in Niger where babies routinely die of hunger-related causes? Impossible, you say? Actually, this miracle cure already exists. It’s breast milk....
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A CHANCE encounter in a village here between an American medical student traveling with me and a starving African mother was almost too wrenching to handle. The winners of my annual win-a-trip contest, Saumya Dave of Atlanta, the medical student, and Noreen Connolly, a teacher from Newark, traveled with me to a remote village here...
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The studio behind one of the year’s most anticipated games released 15 minutes of preview footage teasing its “dazzling” graphics, story, and gaming capabilities The video: Bioshock Infinite, the upcoming third release in the popular Bioshock game series, made a huge splash at the E3 Expo video-game conference last month. A presentation previewing Infinite,...
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In a new campaign against obesity, the British government urges parents to unstrap kids from their strollers and let them work up a (mild) sweat Grown-ups aren’t the only ones who need a good workout to fight obesity. A new advisory from the British government says even babies need to get out of their...
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