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The New Inflation Picture

J. Bradford Delong Project Syndicate
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the bond market's 5-10 year projection of annual chain-weighted personal-consumption-expenditures inflation reached 2.27%, raising concerns that another big shock could de-anchor inflation expectations. But since that didn't happen, the Federal Reserve now should reconsider its position.

Star Wars’ Evil Empire Can Feel a Little Corny — But Then Came Andor

Sonia Saraiya Vox
Andor actually shows why the Empire is terrifying. We see the Empire’s strategy over and over again: Extract resources. Displace indigenous populations. Partner with corporations for profit. And when all else fails, suppress dissent — increasingly, as the show progresses, by any means necessary.

US Workers Need a Federal Paid Sick Leave Guarantee

Adam Tomasi Jacobin
Workers nationwide lack a federal guarantee of paid sick leave in the United States. Establishing a federal paid sick leave guarantee would improve the lives of all American workers — railworkers included.

These Are the Elections That Will Decide Europe's Fate

Conn Hallinan Foreign Policy in Focus
While France teeters on the brink of the far right, left parties elsewhere are showing surprising strength. Predicting election outcomes is tricky these days, the Brexit and the election of Donald Trump being cases in point. The most volatile of the upcoming ballots are in France and Italy. Germany's will certainly be important, but even if Merkel survives, the center-right will be much diminished and the left stronger. And that will have EU-wide implications.

Richard Gere on Segregation in Hebron: It's Exactly Like the Old South

Lisa Goldman +972 Magazine
`It's exactly what the Old South was in America. Blacks knew where they could go: they could drink from that fountain, they couldn't go over there, they couldn't eat in that place,' the American actor tells an Israeli TV station during a tour of the segregated West Bank city.

Socialism's Return

Patrick Iber The Nation
After more than a half-century in the wilderness, the socialist left reemerges in America. Bernie Sanders helped give renewed meaning and salience to democratic socialism as a political identity. His emergence as the moral conscience of the American left was nearly impossible to anticipate. Perhaps the most important aspect of Sanders's run in the Democratic primary was cultural rather than electoral.

“I’m Going to Learn to Dance If It Takes Me All Night and Day” - Thoughts on Chuck Berry

Geoffrey Jacques Portside
Much commentary on the late Chuck Berry will focus on how his songs expressed fun and teenage angst. This is the right thing to do. Yet there’s more. For example, Berry’s obsession with the comparative qualities of fast cars — most brilliantly displayed in his song “Maybellene” — did not just reflect the rise of post-WW II consumerist culture....He preferred V-8 Fords over Cadillacs because he spent several years in the late 1940s and early 1950s helping make Ford cars.

Tidbits - March 23, 2017 - Reader Comments: U.S. Wants Cambodia to Pay for U.S. War; Trump, Russian Hacking; Democratic Party - Which Way; Bernie Sanders; MLK Vietnam Speech; Incredible Resource List (with links); Announcements; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: U.S. Asks Cambodia for Millions in War Debts - for U.S. Destruction of Their Country; Trump Administration, Russian Hacking, Danger of a New McCarthysim; Democratic Party - Which Way; Bernie Sanders: Most Popular Politician in Country; Gorsuch Supports Torture; Irish-American History - James Larkin; Martin Luther King and Vietnam - 50th Anniversary of Historic Speech; Incredible Resource List (with links) from Stansbury Forum; Announcements; and more...