Clive Crook

Islamic radicalization should not be off-limits as a matter of inquiry and debate. Most critics of Peter King's hearing have talked as though mentioning Islam and terrorism in the same sentence is bigotry in its own right--unless you hasten to include references to Oklahoma City, Jared Loughner, and right-wing extremists. This position is absurd, just as King says. Militant Islam poses a distinctive kind of danger, and we should to be able to talk about it… More »

Here is a very interesting article by Joe Stiglitz, leading critic of Anglo-American capitalism and author of "Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy", all about the miracle of Mauritius. [T]he Mauritians have increased per capita income from less than $400 around the time of independence [in 1968] to more than $6,700 today. The country has progressed from the sugar-based monoculture of 50 years ago to a diversified economy that includes… More »

Congress fails to intelligently confront the nation's fiscal problems More »

I'm taking a week's vacation. Blogging service will resume next Monday. More »

Republicans are fighting it on faulty grounds More »

Did politics cause the financial crisis? More »

Obama could be in serious trouble unless he improves his standing with the white working class More »

The main problem with Scott Walker's assault on public-sector unions in Wisconsin is not that it's unwarranted, but that it's disingenuous More »

In a new column for the Financial Times I argue that the US is heading towards a government shutdown because--despite universal protests to the contrary--hardly anybody in DC actually cares that much about reducing the long-term budget deficit. If they did care, consensus would be easy to reach. But they don't. Obama has decided that fiscal lassitude is good politics, and Republicans have their own priorities as well:Under the influence of the recent influx of… More »

I stand corrected More »

Obama inserts himself into Wisconsin's labor controversy More »

The administration made no big mistakes and the outcome, so far, is all right More »

The shape of the budget had been widely trailed so it did not come as a great surprise, but to find the administration making no effort at all to prepare public opinion for future fiscal tightening was still a disappointment. Its excuse is that ideas for tax and entitlement reform cannot be thrust upon a Congress (or a country) as divided as this one; if the White House were to attempt it, the effort would only backfire and the chances of getting the reforms… More »

This nugget of analysis from Politico is one for the scrapbook, I'd say. (I'm assuming the official quoted does actually exist. Don't spoil this for me by telling me it's pure invention.) After days of frustration and high anxiety during which the United States looked impotent and at times out of touch with developments in Egypt, the Obama administration finally notched a foreign policy victory with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's decision to resign and turn… More »

The goup's work goes unfinished More »

John Gapper's column on the AOL/HuffPo incident argues that Huffington and her partners have made out like bandits. HuffPo occupies a media middle ground that is financially doomed, he says. There are plenty of readers in the middle--HuffPo proves that beyond a doubt--but there isn't much money. HuffPo has no subscription revenues and there is a vast gulf between the advertising yields from readers amassed through swimsuit photos and search optimisation, and those… More »

Understanding why academics tend to lean Liberal More »

The real budget solution, says EJ Dionne, is to let all the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2012. He pays generous tribute to Jonathan Chait of The New Republic, who was first to suggest this clever plan to save the economy. As Dionne says, Nothing is more annoying to a columnist than another columnist who gets to an idea you had planned to write about before you do. And with that, I salute The New Republic's Jonathan Chait for his excellent column in the… More »

Caution may be the right approach for the Obama administration More »

Hernando de Soto's article in the "Wall Street Journal" tells you a lot about what is really driving the Egyptian revolution More »