When Democratic governor Dannell P. Malloy told state workers to accept $1.6 billion in cuts and big changes in the pension plan, they balked.  They did more; they formally rejected the contract.Fine, said the governor; I don’t have any money.  If you won’t cut costs, I’ll cut staff — and the state began sending out […]

It appears I am not alone in predicting complications arising from Turkey’s policy toward its eastern neighbors. David Gardner in the Financial Times sees a new polarity arising in the Middle East, pitting Shia Iran against Sunni Turkey: Turkey has now become a head-on rival to Iran across the Middle East. Whereas Tehran backs several […]

Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the leader who presided over its demise isn’t happy about the Russia he sees.  Said Gorbachev: Our senior management should be updated…There comes a time when you need to get out of this rut….If the regime behaves just to increase its own power then this is […]

Only Israel will benefit from the Arab spring, Iraqi Prime Minister has warned the Arab world.  As reported in the New York Times: “There is no doubt that there is a country that is waiting for the Arab countries to be ripped and is waiting for internal corrosion,” [Maliki]  said in Baghdad. “Zionists and Israel […]

If, like many Americans, you have left your land-line phone to gather dust while you explore the joys of wireless technology, you may be unaware that a major strike is now underway across the Eastern Seaboard. Indeed, the strike of 45,000 Verizon land-line technicians has received relatively little attention in the press, even from the […]

This is the summer of the Great Fear, and never more so than on this grim morning with stock futures sharply down — again — and real worries about the possibility that the banking system might freeze up.  For history buffs, it feels a little bit like 1931.  The US economy and stock market seemed […]

Not only are American colleges and universities strangling the humanities, they are bankrupting an entire generation to do so. Another article by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus in The Atlantic provides the latest on the college loan bubble, which is nearing one trillion dollars across the country, and the misplaced priorities of American universities: A […]

“More mush from the wimp” was the infamous (and accidental) Boston Globe headline over an article about a Jimmy Carter speech; it sums up Robert Kuttner’s feelings about President Obama in his latest at Politico.com.  Is Texas governor Rick Perry too right wing to be electable, Kuttner asks.  Not against Obama, he warns. Everyone should […]

It is the best of times and the worst of times in Brazil.  The country has so far survived the global economic upheaval in good shape; but Brazil is haunted by 200 years of promise that never quite panned out. Brazil’s disappointments are usually related to the interplay of two problems: the booms and busts […]

My Bard colleague David Nelson serves as the Jewish chaplain and from time to time shares thoughts and reflections with the faculty by email — a kind of in-house blog.  With his permission, I’m reposting his latest entry here.  It’s useful and interesting for what it says, and as a model of how a solid […]