On Television’s Sunset: Thinking outside the Box

Sometimes I think the human mind is like a train in being limited to the tracks that have already been laid. We are habituated to think it sufficient that we can turn off the main line on to another at the next signal. We think this is change because it involves turning onto a different track, but is it really change if the train is still on track?

The full essay is at "On Television's Sunset."

Justice as Fairness: Writing Down Greek Debt

In 2012, 80% of Greece’s private creditors agreed to “voluntarily” convert their Greek debt into debt of a bit less than half the face-value (plus a lower interest rate). With such a proportion having agreed to the swap without triggering credit default swap insurance payouts, Greece could get the E.U. to agree to force the remaining 20% to involuntary write-downs. That would trigger the credit default swaps, at least in theory.

The full essay is at "Justice as Fairness: Greek Debt."

A Democratic Spring in Russian Cities

The “Arab Spring” of 2011 might have given the world an over-optimistic notion of what political protest can engender in terms of “regime change.” A year later, the Egyptian military was still in control, which suggests that removing one particular dictator had constituted real change. In Myanmar, soldiers still dominated the parliament even after the opposition party won a landslide victory in by-elections in March 2012. Meanwhile, Assad in Syria was getting away with teaching the protesters in his country a bloody lesson while both the Arab League and the UN looked on. Meanwhile, Putin viewed his fraudulent presidential election victory as a mandate to deal more severely with the Russian protesters. The notion that a brave new world of democracy had somehow sprung to life in the Arab Spring suffered an cold snap of sorts from the cold winds of real politik. I suspect that real change happens more incrementally, and from the bottom up. This was evident in Russia in March, 2012.

The full essay is at "A Democratic Spring."