Nate Silver on why S&P's ratings are substandard and porous: S&P's bond ratings from five years ago would have told you almost nothing about the risk of a default today. How should Obama answer the stock market's wake-up call? Brad DeLong wonders. When Ken Rogoff sees the markets panic because it just realized we’re not returning to normal anytime soon, he wishes they would have read him more closely. How bad is it? John Cassidy on the economy after the debt-ceiling agreement. The psychology of political stubbornness: A framework for what motivates rigidity among politicians helps explain the debt ceiling debate. Articles of faith: Did austerity politics kill compassionate conservatism? James Surowiecki on the business of austerity: Why Wall Street should fear the Tea Party. Leap of faith: Ryan Lizza on the making of Michele Bachmann. Tea Party Queen: Why Michele Bachmann is riding high going into Iowa. The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism: The goal, methods and passions of the Tea Party in the House are all characteristic of the radical Southern right. From Daily Caller, James Poulos on the end of optimism and the pursuit of happiness, on how only libertarianism can save the GOP and on how the Tea Party can win the left. Obama is too good for us: The debt deal fiasco proved that any decent, honest politician like the president simply doesn’t stand a chance against the likes of Michele Bachmann; Charles Fried on how the Tea Party ruined America. The next election: Andrew Hacker reviews Pendulum Swing, ed. Larry Sabato; The Audacity to Win: How Obama Won and How We Can Beat the Party of Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin by David Plouffe; and Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America by Kate Zernike. Do political experts know what they’re talking about? Jonah Lehrer interviews Philip Tetlock, author of Expert Political Judgment.
