From Economic Principals, how did the consequences of a residential housing mania in the United States at last become so dire? An article on Bailout Bernanke as hero of Wall Street. With untold billions to be spent nationalising the debts of Bear Stearns, the US taxpayer is footing the bill for the failures of Wall Street and regulators. The more terrified Americans get of Bush's policy disasters, the more bizarrely cheery is his attitude. Why selecting the traits of offspring is part of the evolution: An excerpt from Babies by Design: The Ethics of Genetic Choice by Ronald Green. Form The Root, among black Americans, Jeremiah Wright may not be that far out of the mainstream, and an article on why Obama's pastor matters. In this campaign, there is no room for remarks of any sort on any subject. The atheist delusion: John Gray on why the secular fundamentalists have got it all wrong. From left to right: An article on mid-life political conversions. From Newsweek, a cover story on Scions of the Surge: Five years on, the war is transforming the officer corps. From Islamica, an article on America's marketplace of confessions: Evangelical Christianity's gift to Muslims. Lessons from the history of trade: Globalisation is fundamentally political, not technological. Televangelist Rod Parsley, a key McCain ally in Ohio, has called for eradicating the "false religion"; will the presidential candidate renounce him?