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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

The Browser daily newsletter [04 Jan 2012]

4 January 2012

 Best of the Moment

When Currencies Collapse

Barry Eichengreen | Foreign Affairs | 15 December 2011

Superb essay. Euro, dollar account for 90% of global foreign exchange reserves. What would happen if investor confidence in either faltered? Eichengreen looks back to 1930s and 1970s for clues (Free access for Browser readers) Comments

The Meaning Of Mitt

Michael Kranish & Scott Helman | Vanity Fair | 4 January 2012

Timely feature on Republican contender, his family, career in business, and leadership in Mormon church. "Mitt is always the star. And everybody else is a bit player." Oh, and yes he really did strap his dog to the roof of his car Comments

Behind The Rise Of The Great Powers

Liu Xiaobo | Guernica | 3 January 2012

Translation of Nobel laureate's superb 2007 essay on state of China. Still reads well. Chinese people are fed fabricated myths of success. Patriotism is channeled into superficial, arrogant nationalism. Universal values obliterated Comments

Greece: The History Behind The Collapse

Georges Prévélakis | Eurozine | 23 December 2011

Professor of geopolitics at Sorbonne seeks to explain peculiarities of Greece's political administration, dysfunctional economy, through lens of history. And the lessons Europe must learn from his country's near failure Comments

Why You Don't Really Have Free Will

Jerry Coyne | USA Today | 1 January 2012

Popular newspaper column resolves argument that has engaged philosophers for centuries. Well, not quite, but it's a nice punchy statement of the main ideas from a serious thinker. And a good read. As if you had a choice Comments

How Many Stephen Colberts Are There?

Charles McGrath | NYT | 4 January 2012

On host of fake news show The Colbert Report. Satire that blurs parody and the parodied. Tried to buy naming rights for presidential primary. And add referendum question on whether "corporations are people". Nearly succeeded Comments

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