The Official Policy Tensor Reading List
So I stumbled upon a great website. Its called The Browser. They collect the best articles on the web. To start off the reading list I am going to list the ones I really enjoyed reading. Here goes.
Day 1
Robin Yassin-Kasaab argues in Foreign Policy that its too late for the Assad regime to save itself in Syria. Venkat writes at RibbonFarm about the history of the corporation since its orgins in the East India Company in the year 1600. Ha-Joon Chang busts myths about free markets at Truthout in a brillant article titled There is no such thing as a free market. Tyler Durdun (terrible pseudonym btw) has a great post on inequity at ZeroHedge. Donald MacKinzie talks about High-Frequency trading in perhaps the best article on the subject so far in the London Review of Books. Mens Journal (surprise surprise) has a great article on Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who shot and killed two people in broad daylight in Pakistan.
Day 2
The first thing I found in my inbox this morning was this hilarious article in Foreign Policy about the cow theory of political systems in the Middle East. The Times has an amazing article on the spectacular scenes around the University of Sana in Yemen. Another must-read is a report on the surging protests in Syria. How much longer can the regime survive is unclear. That its days are numbered is becoming increasingly obvious.
Day 3
The editors think that Obama ought to do more to pressure the Assad regime. I am coming around to the view that it might be time for Turkey to conduct a humanitarian intervention. Even amassing troops on the border and arranging F-16 sorties should be enough to concentrate Assad's mind. American and Western intervention is possibly a bad idea, but Turkish? Its almost natural. I need to mull over this some more before being convinced either way.
Daniel Gross talks about the miserable returns to the Goldman Sacs shareholders while the executives award themselves 8-figure bonuses. And while we are talking about Goldman, the seminal article by Matt Taibbi is a must read. Its called The Great American Bubble Machine. I am going to quote the first paragraph because it remains the most entertaining first paragraph in the history of the long form article.
"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates."
Day 4
Saudi women driving in the cities is creating a bit of a furor. There was a New York Times Magazine article on Keith Olbermann recently. He is certainly one of the more entertaining talk show hosts and his rage feels just right most of the time. After famously getting kicked out of MSNBC, Olbermann has joined Current TV where he will anchor the prime time show at 8PM. Its likely that Comcast bought MSNBC precisely to remove Olbermann. In any event, they wanted to get rid of him and they did. Is Comcast controlled by the Koch brothers? (Kidding of course).
Here is another gem I found on the browser. This GQ article on the epic Wimbledon match last year that lasted for 3 days. Sarah Stillman has a shocking article in the New Yorker about the conditions of military subcontractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its called The Invisible Army.
And the last update for this post: Meet the Gomboc