2016 Elections

Katie Benner: "Carly Fiorina doesn't have a long political track record, aside from a failed run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. So she's running for president on her record as a business executive at AT&T and Lucent, and later as the chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard. To cut to the chase: Fiorina was fired from HP because she did a bad job." Read more...

The Editors: "Mike Huckabee is not a fringe figure. Intelligent and charismatic, he has twice been elected governor of a state and, as a Baptist minister, can claim a degree of moral authority that eludes many other politicians. His campaign is an opportunity to show some love to those behind him, and maybe even a little charity to those in front." Read more...

Jonathan Bernstein: "Yes, the field of Republican presidential candidates looks cartoonishly huge. ... No one knows why the field is so big. Here are the most plausible explanations." Read more...

Poverty

Francis Barry: "In March 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan sounded the alarm about the breakdown in marriage rates among African-Americans -- and was excoriated by his fellow Democrats, who never quite forgave him for 'blaming the victim.' But it's impossible to read the Moynihan report today without thinking of the underlying conditions in Baltimore that gave rise to last week's riot." Read more...

DECLASSIFIED

Josh Rogin: "Following a year of China's flagrant and aggressive activities in contested waters, some in Washington are calling for President Obama to cancel China's invitation to the largest maritime military exercise in the world." Read more...

Europe

Leonid Bershidsky: "Though the latest political scandal involving the U.S. National Security Agency's European spying operations is serious enough to threaten the career of German Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere and undermine the authority of Chancellor Angela Merkel, it's not really about a betrayal of German interests but about the lasting legacy of the Cold War and outsized U.S. power in the Western world." Read more...

Economics

Noah Smith: "Every once in a while, you hear the old claim that Japan doesn't create new things, but simply copies the West and makes small, iterative improvements. ... People still repeat the old saw from time to time, and it needs to die." Read more...

Environment

Mark Buchanan: "The typical approach to environmentalism involves finding ways for humans to live in harmony with nature. But what if that's wrong? What if our destiny is to leave nature behind? It's a radical idea, but it's worth a moment of reflection." Read more...

India

Dhiraj Nayyar: "Three weeks from now, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will mark his first year in office. He swept into office with a clear center-right message -- 'minimum government, maximum governance' -- and the biggest mandate of any leader since 1984. Yet his administration still can't seem to make up its mind what kind of government it wants to be." Read more...

News Roundup

Barry Ritholtz (Read the news roundup)

• The revolution will be Periscoped. Read more...
• Tesla's new home-based battery isn't just nifty. It's liberating. Read more...
• Seven important life lessons everyone learns the hard way: Read more...

Benner (Read the news roundup)

• Pinterest is rolling out a test version of a platform for developers who want to build apps for Pinterest. Read more...
• SpaceX would like you to know five important things about an upcoming trial run for the spacecraft's launch abort system. Read more...
• Twilio raised $100 million and is now valued at over $1 billion. Read more...

Money Stuff

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