From Crooked Timber, a seminar on Steve Teles’ The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement. An interview with Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution. From The Economist, the IMF has been promised lots more money and has a new sense of purpose, but reform is still needed — especially if it is to win the trust of emerging economies; from buy, buy to bye-bye: The recession will have a lasting impact on the way people shop; and how poverty passes from generation to generation is now becoming clearer — the answer lies in the effect of stress on two particular parts of the brain. Welcome to Pipelineistan: The bloodstream of the global energy war is the pipelines that crisscross the planet's potential imperial battlefields. One-In-A-Million Collisions: Not enough space in the Universe, or did somebody switch on the Improbability Drive? Michael Zain on a short history of American rage; and angry Americans want people to blame for the financial mess — but c’mon: Are AIG, Tim Geithner, and John Thain really to blame for your retirement losses? A review of Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom. Parisians, rude? Pas du tout! The key to living in Paris is politeness. The first chapter from Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11 by Amy B. Zegart (and more on the CIA).
