¶ Whatever you think of Paul Krugman and his insistence upon the priority of jobs creation (we’re inclined to agree), there’s no disputing his account of the deficit, which we note particularly because he places responsibility for the ballooning of our national debt entirely upon the shoulders of “the elite.” The Bush tax cuts, the Iraqi misadventure, and the recession were all the doing of powerful cliques who now, because they can, blame ordinary Americans for “wanting something for nothing.” We wish that Mr Krugman would resort to different terminology: “elite” is now a cant word that means little more than “powerful people whom I don’t like.” ¶ Here’s hoping that Dominique Browning will galvanize American mothers (and fathers) and create an effective demand for thoroughgoing regulatory reform on the product-safety front. There can be no unguided free markets in anything pertaining to infants.

¶ Michael Kimmelman meditates on the fiftieth anniversary of the Eichmann trial, causing us to meditate on the ineffable transformation of the present — now — into “history.” Hannah Arendt would be unpleasantly surprised to learn that her theory of totalitarianism was richly grounded in the Zeitgeist — but so it seems to have been. We’re also reminded of Jonathan Littell’s sharp portrait of Adolf Eichmann in Les Bienveillantes — nothing banal about him!

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Monday, May 9th, 2011 at 10:30 am.