The siege of Damascus
Peter Oborne, the former chief political commentator of the Telegraph, spent two weeks in Damascus and gives a compelling account of people’s struggles and steadfastness in government-held territory.
“Everything is Happening” by Michael Jacobs
A posthumously published book by the art historian Michael Jacobs on his long standing obsession, the Velazquez painting, “Las Meninas”, that hangs in the Prado – a painting that has perplexed art historians for two centuries.
The Wild Party
An American poet from the 20s who wrote two lost and neglected Jazz Age classics, epics of debauchery and depravity, “The Wild Party” and “The Set Up”. The Wild Party is the very epitome of the Jazz Age. The poem went in and out of fashion and both The Wild Party and The Set Up have been made into films. Robert Wise, in 1949 filmed The Set-Up and there was a Merchant Ivory Productions in 1975 version of The Wild Party.
Search for yield
Discussions on the connection between the level of interest rates, incentives to search for yield, and financial stability have been prominent over the last ten years or so. More recently, Larry Summers argued in his 2014 secular stagnation address that the decline in the real interest rates would be expected to increase financial instability. What is the connection between these phenomena?
Beijing tightens the screws
The Chinese state is now more ideological and more repressive than ever since the days of Mao. The new leadership has, however, shifted the balance of rule. The new leaders put less trust in the people’s trust in them and are instead relying more strongly on controls and repression.
The state of climate-related negotiations
With 2015 set to break global temperature records, this December ministers will convene at the UN meeting in Paris and the WTO meeting in Nairobi to continue climate negotiations.
After Obama: Clinton vs. Sanders
Hillary Clinton just laid out a hawkish foreign policy vision in a major speech. How do her views stack up against those of Bernie Sanders, her challenger from the left?
A climate of conspiracy
David Runciman, Professor of Politics at Cambridge University examines what the Tea Party and Occupy movements have in common: the fact that they don’t accept the official version of events any more.
The U.S. Is Betraying the Kurds — Again
Turkey is offering Washington a fig leaf of cooperation against the Islamic State, but it’s turning all its firepower against the most effective anti-ISIS fighters in the region – the Kurds.
Arms sales to Egypt: rhetoric overtakes reality
It is impossible to show solidarity with the people of Egypt while arming and supporting the tyranny oppressing them, but this is the hypocrisy at the heart of western foreign policy.