Essays Archive - Page 93 of 131

Of Viruses, Distressed Sales, and Stocks’ “Rightful Owners”

Why the current US retirement system and safety net need dynamite

April 23, 2020 • by William Bernstein

As legendary investor Benjamin Graham put it less than a year later in the pages of Forbes, "Those with enterprise haven't the money, and those with money haven't the enterprise, to buy stocks when they are cheap." In other words, those with the will to invest—the “plungers”—had long since run ...

Of Viruses, Distressed Sales, and Stocks’ “Rightful Owners”

North America

Sustaining Democratic Opposition to Trumpism

Why the Democratic Party Must Support Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

April 22, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Since Super Tuesday, it has been clear that the Democratic nominee will be Joe Biden. And in the past week, there has been an extraordinary public display of political unity behind the Biden campaign, with Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, and then Elizabeth Warren issuing full-throated endorsements. The appeal to party unity in the face ...

Sustaining Democratic Opposition to Trumpism

North America

“There Go the People….”

By endorsing protesters who demand that states reopen, Donald Trump reveals himself as a leader of a movement, not a party or a nation

April 21, 2020 • by Sidney Tarrow

There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader. No one could be further from Donald Trump in either ideology or personal biography than Ledru-Rollin, who was the grandson of Nicolas Philippe Ledru, a well-known quack doctor under the Old Regime. But the celebrated quote attributed to the radical French ...

Interviews

Donald Trump’s Former Book Agent Comes Clean

UTA’s Byrd Leavell calls Caroline Calloway “unwell” and regrets his association with the President

April 21, 2020 • by Alexa Mauzy

Leavell is a literary agent, currently at United Talent Agency (UTA), one of Hollywood’s most powerful agencies, representing artists and other professionals in the entertainment industry. Based in Beverly Hills, it has divisions focused on film, television, digital, video games, and music, in addition to books. As the agency’s mission statement puts it, “We help ...

Donald Trump’s Former Book Agent Comes Clean

Music

David Bowie’s Future Revolution

Why the music made us feel so alive — and his death is still so hard to take

April 21, 2020 • by Simon Critchley

On the title track of Blackstar, released just a couple of days before his death, Bowie sings, “I’m not a pop star.” For me, and for his millions of fans, he was much more than that. He was someone who simply made us feel alive. This is what makes his ...

Migration

In Limbo

My journey through the pandemic

April 21, 2020 • by Pawel Knut

That is how my personal journey through the pandemic began. I was spending the academic year in New York City on a Fulbright scholarship at The New School. After living in the city all fall and winter, my wife and I were planning to leave at the end of April. ...

Interviews

Spend More Time Listening to Kids

An Interview With Naomi Shihab Nye, Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award

April 21, 2020 • by Naomi Shihab Nye and Aekta Khubchandani

Naomi Shihab Nye [NSN]: Thank you so much for this generous vote of confidence. It makes me feel deeply touched and stunned. AK: I wanted to talk about your appetite for tenderness. You’ve been brought up in a house where newspapers announced mornings, your father was an immigrant newspaper journalist ...

History

Challenging the Perception of the Wayward Girl

An interview with Saidiya Hartman

April 21, 2020 • by Saidiya Hartman and Yannise Jean

Yannise Jean [YJ]: For this book, you took a different approach by structuring it like a fictional narrative. I think this structure really helps the reader get into the character's heads. Was this your intention during the outlining stages of your book? Saidiya Hartman [SH]: I write nonfiction. As I started to write ...

Challenging the Perception of the Wayward Girl

Interviews

Elegies for Lost Children

An Interview With Valeria Luiselli

April 20, 2020 • by Valeria Luiselli and Vanessa Chan

Eventually, the narrator’s own children go missing, culminating in a 20-page single sentence climax that breaks every convention, and that the reader is unable to look away from. On top of this wide range of themes, Luiselli also creates a novel-within-a-novel – a book called “Elegies for Lost Children” that ...

Public Health

What Thucydides Can Teach Us

Ancient reflections on a time of plague

April 20, 2020 • by Daniel Schillinger

Coronavirus will end the Trump presidency – or it will boost his chances of reelection. COVID-19 will provoke a revolution – or it will restore trust in liberal democratic institutions. It will make us more distant – or it will bring us closer together. Thucydides, the ancient Athenian author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, ...

Activism

Don’t Give Paranoids Too Much Credit

Some minds can’t trust anything or anyone not on their side

April 17, 2020 • by John Stoehr

The evidence? Here’s the Washington Post, explaining the Michigan rules. “Confused shoppers found they could buy liquor and lottery tickets … but couldn’t visit the vegetable seed aisle … The order required large stores to shut down plant nurseries and rope off sections where carpet, flooring, and paint were sold, provisions ...

Democracy

Steve Bannon and the Struggle for America’s Post-Pandemic Soul

Why populist-nationalist movements detest international cooperation

April 16, 2020 • by Robert Wright

But however grave Bannon’s crimes, to write him off back then—to assume he would never again be a significant force within Trumpism—would have been to underestimate his resourcefulness and determination. A pandemic is a time of opportunity as well as tragedy, and Bannon is seizing the moment. And the way ...

Essays

Of Viruses, Distressed Sales, and Stocks’ “Rightful Owners”

Why the current US retirement system and safety net need dynamite

Sustaining Democratic Opposition to Trumpism

Why the Democratic Party Must Support Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“There Go the People….”

By endorsing protesters who demand that states reopen, Donald Trump reveals himself as a leader of a movement, not a party or a nation

Donald Trump’s Former Book Agent Comes Clean

UTA’s Byrd Leavell calls Caroline Calloway “unwell” and regrets his association with the President

David Bowie’s Future Revolution

Why the music made us feel so alive — and his death is still so hard to take

In Limbo

My journey through the pandemic

Spend More Time Listening to Kids

An Interview With Naomi Shihab Nye, Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award

Challenging the Perception of the Wayward Girl

An interview with Saidiya Hartman

Elegies for Lost Children

An Interview With Valeria Luiselli

What Thucydides Can Teach Us

Ancient reflections on a time of plague

Don’t Give Paranoids Too Much Credit

Some minds can’t trust anything or anyone not on their side

Steve Bannon and the Struggle for America’s Post-Pandemic Soul

Why populist-nationalist movements detest international cooperation

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