Top rated stories on U.S. Economy, week two

For the past two weeks, our featured topic has been the U.S. Economy. The month of September has produced a financial crisis that the Wall Street Journal and many market observers have called the worst since the Great Depression. With elections just six weeks away, Barack Obama and John McCain have traded attacks on the economy, while Congress is rushing to pass legislation to protect homeowners and curb the market turmoil that brought down several major insurers and banks. Our members found a range of stories on the new challenges facing the economy and how the candidates plan to address them if elected. Here are some of our top stories.

News

On Wall Street as on Main Street, a Problem of Denial
New York Times (News Analysis)

No End in Sight to the Financial Crisis
Economist (News Analysis)

Worst Crisis Since '30s, with No End in Sight
Wall Street Journal (News Analysis)

New Architecture for the Financial World
Washington Post (News Analysis)

Senate Democrats Want Pay Limits, Equity in Bailout
Reuters (News Report)

Sorting Out the Truth on taxes
PolitiFact (News Analysis)

Bailout May Give Housing Market Some Breathing Room
L.A. Times (News Report)

Estimates Say Fed Budget Deficit Nearing $407B
Associated Press (News Report)

Nominees Ignore Credit Crunch
Washington Independent (News Report)

Financial Bailout: Who's Minding the Store?
Real Time Investigations (Special Report)

Opinion

Perhaps, Time to Play some Offense
New York Times (Opinion)

If You Like Michigan's Economy, You'll Love Obama's
Wall Street Journal (Opinion)

A Crisis that could make the U.S. Election a Cleaner Contest
The Independent (Opinion)

Fault Lines Expose Flimsy Foundations
Financial Times (Opinion)

Public Policy Matters After All
Columbia Journalism Review (Opinion)

Financial Rescues show that Faith in Free Market is Shaken
Washington Post (Opinion)

Effort to Contain Financial Crisis Failing
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Opinion)

McCain Attacks Wall Street Greed--While 83 Wall Street Lobbyists Work for his Campaign
Mother Jones (Blog Post)

Heckuva Job, Bernake
The Nation (Opinion)

Amid a Painful Economic Meltdown, Will Obama be Bold Enough to Win?
AlterNet (Opinion)

This week: Foreign Policy
This week our featured topic is U.S. Foreign Policy. The first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama will take place this Friday, and its focus is expected to be foreign policy. As the news media cover this charged topic, help us find the best journalism on how the candidates plan to approach U.S. relations with Russia, the Middle East, and China, among others. Get started by visiting our Foreign Policy topic page and reviewing or submitting some of our recommended stories.

– Derek Hawkins

Comments

[pirjo sundqvist]

1. An ugly side to McCain, reported by a professor who was at a resort
Posted by: "William and Barbara Taylor" wrbftaylor@comcast.net
Date: Fri Oct 3, 2008 2:45 am ((PDT))

For those of you who don't know her, Mary Kay Gamel
>> is a
>> literature and classics professor at UCSC. She is
>> asking people to
>> send the letter she wrote far and wide.
>> MY HOLIDAY WITH JOHN McCAIN
>>
>> It was just before John McCain's last run at the
>> presidential nomination
>> in 2000 that my husband and I vacationed in Turtle Island
>> in Fiji with
>> John McCain, Cindy, and their children, including Bridget
>> (their adopted
>> Bangladeshi child).
>>
>> It was not our intention, but it was our misfortune, to
>> be in close
>> quarters with John McCain for almost a week, since Turtle
>> Island has a small
>> number of bungalows and their focus on communal meals force
>> all vacationers
>> who are there at the same time to get to know each other
>> intimately.
>>
>> He arrived at our first group meal and started reading
>> quotes from a pile
>> of William Faulkner books with a forest of Post-Its
>> sticking out of them. As
>> an English Literature major myself, my first thought was
>> "if he likes this
>> so much, why hasn't he memorized any of this yet?"
>>
>> I soon realized that McCain actually thought we had come
>> on vacation to
>> be a volunteer audience for his "readings" which
>> then became a regular
>> part of each meal. Out of politeness, none of the
>> vacationers initially
>> protested at this intrusion into their blissful holiday,
>> but people's
>> buttons definitely got pushed as the readings continued day
>> after day.
>>
>> Unfortunately this was not his only contribution to our
>> mealtime
>> entertainment. He waxed on during one meal about how
>> Indo-Chine women had
>> the best figures and that our American corn-fed women just
>> couldn't meet up
>> to this standard. He also made it a point that all of us
>> should stop Cindy
>> from having dessert as her weight was too high and made a
>> few comments to
>> Amy, the 25 year old wife of the honeymooning couple from
>> Nebraska that she
>> should eat less as she needed to lose weight.
>>
>> McCain's appreciation of the beauty of Asian women
>> was so great that
>> David the American economist had to move his Thai wife to
>> the other side
>> of the table from McCain as McCain kept aggressively
>> flirting with and
>> touching her.
>>
>> Needless to say I was irritated at his large ego and his
>> rude behavior
>> towards his wife and other women, but decided he must have
>> some redeeming
>> qualities as he had adopted a handicapped child from
>> Bangladesh. I asked
>> him about this one day, and his response was shocking:
>> "Oh, that was
>> Cindy's idea - I didn't have anything to do with
>> it. She just went and
>> adopted this thing without even asking me. You can't
>> imagine how people
>> stare when I wheel this ugly, black thing around in a
>> shopping cart in
>> Arizona. No, it wasn't my idea at all."
>>
>> I actively avoided McCain after that, but unfortunately
>> one day he
>> engaged me in a political discussion which soon got us on
>> the topic of the
>> active US bombing of Iraq at that time. I was shocked
>> when he said, "If I
>> was in charge, I would nuke Iraq to teach them a
>> lesson". Given McCain's
>> personal experience with the horrors of war, I had
>> expected a more
>> balanced point of view. I commented on the tragic
>> consequences of the
>> nuclear attacks on Japan during WWII - but no, he was not
>> to be dissuaded.
>> He went on to say that if it was up to him he would have
>> dropped many more
>> nuclear bombs on Japan. I rapidly extricated myself from
>> this
>> conversation as I could tell that his experience being
>> tortured as a POW
>> didn't seem to have mellowed out his perspective, but
>> rather had made him
>> more aggressive and vengeful towards the world.
>>
>> My final encounter with McCain was on the morning that he
>> was leaving
>> Turtle Island. Amy and I were happily eating pancakes when
>> McCain arrived
>> and told Amy that she shouldn't be having pancakes
>> because she needed to
>> lose weight. Amy burst into tears at this abusive
>> comment. I felt fiercely
>> protective of Amy and immediately turned to McCain and
>> told him to leave
>> her alone. He became very angry and abusive towards me,
>> and said, "Don't
>> you know who I am." I looked him in the face and
>> said, "Yes, you are the
>> biggest asshole I have ever met" and headed back to
>> my cabin. I am happy
>> to say that later that day when I arrived at lunch I was
>> given a standing
>> ovation by all the guests for having stood up to
>> McCain's bullying
>>
>> Although I have shared my McCain story informally with
>> friends, this is
>> the first time I am making this public. I almost did so in
>> 2000, when
>> McCain first announced his bid for the Republican
>> nomination, but it soon
>> became apparent that George Bush was the shoo-in candidate
>> and so I did not
>> act then. However, now that there is a very real
>> possibility that McCain
>> could be elected as our next president, I feel it is my
>> duty as an
>> American citizen to share this story. I can't imagine
>> a more scary outcome
>> for America than that this abusive, aggressive man should
>> lead our nation.
>> I have observed him in intimate surroundings as he really
>> is, not how the
>> media portrays him to be. If his attitudes toward women
>> and his treatment
>> of his own family are even a small indicator of his real
>> personality, then I
>> shudder to think what will happen to America were he to be
>> elected as our
>> President.
>> --
>> Mary-Kay Gamel
>> Professor of Classics, Comparative Literature, and
>> Theater
>> Arts
>> Cowell College
>> University of California, Santa Cruz
>> Santa Cruz, California 95064