The New York Times this morning has a story that more and more people are paying actual money for virtual goods; they are paying on-line retailers and social network sites to send virtual gifts to their friends.  You pay one dollar; they ‘ship’ the image of a champagne bottle to the on-line account of someone […]

Now it begins.The conventional wisdom on Obama is going negative.  The Virginia and New Jersey elections were a tipping point: suddenly a lot of isolated bits of data jelled into a pattern.Now come new economic numbers; unemployment is officially in double digits for the first time since 1983.The next stage will come as more of […]

Most of the time I take my neighborhood for granted.  Walking home from the subway last Saturday, though, the neighborhood was looking positively Biblical.Specifically, it reminded me of the eleventh chapter in Genesis (Old Testament again, for those of you keeping track), in which the citizens of Babel decide to build a tower that will […]

John Steele Gordon is one of the most interesting economic historians around.  This piece in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal looks at some of the most important changes going forward in the United States today.  You may not agree with his answers, but I think you’ll find that his questions make you think.

Remember, remember, The Fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot!I only got to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day once when I was a kid, but it was definitely the Best Holiday Ever.Three hundred and five years ago today, a deranged Roman Catholic named Guy (aka Guido) Fawkes and a group of accomplices were caught in the […]

Well, it’s not your real birthday, and I’m not Marilyn Monroe, but it is the first anniversary of your election – and the first time the voters have spoken since then.Welcome to the rest of your term.This isn’t the happiest day you’ve had in the White House.  Last night’s election returns weren’t what you’d hoped […]

It should be no surprise, I write today, that American officials desperately working to stave off military defeat and political collapse in Afghanistan find themselves cutting dirty deals with nasty people—like Hamid Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. In Afghanistan,  a country that’s been involved in chaotic civil and international conflicts for thirty years, the people […]

There’s a beautiful kilim on the blogging room floor here at the stately Mead manor in Jackson Heights; I bought it in Peshawar about three years ago when I was giving a series of lectures on American foreign policy across Pakistan.  I couldn’t buy it in the market; the security situation in Peshawar was so […]

Sam Ayres, the official intern here at Team Mead, is turning 23 years old today. In lieu of an actual gift, which would only turn his attention to material things and away from the intangible rewards of interning, I’m posting our first Occasional Poem in his honor: a sonnet that John Milton wrote on his […]

Apologies to all who are checking this space, but posting has been slow for the last few days, and will be slow for at least a couple more.  Whether it’s the flu formerly known as swine or something even less glamorous, a virus of some kind is sweeping through Mead Global HQ.  I will spare […]