The Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program: Latest Articles

Gut Reactions

Articles — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:08:00 -0400

For more than a hundred million years, termites have lived in obscurity, noticed only by the occasional hungry anteater or, more recently, by dismayed homeowners. Other social insects, such as bees and ants, are celebrated for their industriousness and engineering feats, but popular culture has not gotten around to cheering on termites for theirs -- even though they build mounds as tall as 20 feet, which may be oriented north-south as accurately as if plotted with a compass, in order to maximize heat from the sun. The extraordinary powers evolution has bestowed on termites -- some protect the mound by spraying chemicals from nozzles on their heads at intruders,… more

To Win the Middle Class, Time to Roll Out Obamanomics 2.0

Articles — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:18:00 -0400

Democrats gather in Denver this week with worries as well as hopes. It's not just that Barack Obama is locked in a dead heat with John McCain. It's also that he is barely winning - and in some polls actually losing - on the issue that should be his strongest - the economy.

If Obama is going to triumph, he needs to attract the middle-class voters who've watched their jobs, health care, retirement savings and family finances grow less secure. But this will only happen if he sharpens and expands his economic message, without further delay. To do that, he must put three moves into his economic playbook so… more

Don't Pick a Fight You Can't Finish, Mr. Miliband

Articles — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:37:00 -0400

Before making his speech on policy towards Russia in Kiev, Ukraine, later this week David Miliband would do well to ponder some wise advice from a great predecessor. Lord Salisbury, Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister in the days of the British Empire, dispensed immense global power; but that did not mean that he liked playing about with that power.

Faced with proposals for British policy that he understood to be deeply damaging to the interests of other great powers, Salisbury would look his colleagues in the eye and ask simply: “Are you really prepared to fight? If not, do not embark on this policy.”

If the events… more

Big Mac Politics

Articles — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:27:00 -0400

Don't do it. Don't tune in to this year's political conventions. For two decades, Americans have been wising up and increasingly tuning out those quadrennial made-for-television pageants that pass for participatory democracy. In 1976, roughly 22 million people watched Jimmy Carter receive his party's nomination. By contrast, four years ago, only 16 million viewers enjoyed the high jinks at the GOP convention. Over the years, declining interest has persuaded broadcast networks to scale back their coverage, and I think a lot of us suspect we didn't miss much. But this year, thanks to heightened interest in the presidential campaign, both broadcast and cable news networks… more

A College Fund for Every Student

Articles — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:35:00 -0400

Barack Obama wants to give families a refundable $4,000 tax credit for college, if their children complete a required amount of community service. It's a fine, conventional Democratic idea. It could be a lot more powerful, though, if Obama coupled it with an old Republican favorite - depositing his $4,000 credit into private accounts like the so-called 529 plans that so many upper-income families use to save for college.

There are already 12 higher education-related tax credits and deductions on the books, including the Clinton administration's HOPE and Lifetime Learning tax credits. To varying degrees they make college more affordable for those with taxable income who get over the hump… more

There Are Better Options

Articles — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:32:00 -0400

Israel's response to the Iranian challenge has been out of synch with developing realities for some time. Recently though, it has become dangerously counter-productive, anchored as it is in denial. As Israel intensifies its role as threatener-in-chief, and clings to a "more sticks, bigger sticks" line, events all around are moving on. The supposed logic behind Israel's escalating threats, suggesting it is ready to go it alone militarily, is threefold. It pressures Iran, thereby increasing international leverage in negotiations; a nervous world feels compelled to up sanctions and deliver results; and the path is smoothed to international acceptance of possible future Israeli action.… more

Eating Toads in Peshawar

Articles — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:47:00 -0400

Opening the papers in Pakistan this morning, two French maxims came to mind. The first is that “every man has to digest a toad every day before breakfast.” This thought was inspired by the front page news that the next President of Pakistan will most probably be Asif Ali Zardari, widower of the late Benazir Bhutto, and widely known among both Pakistanis and Westerners here as “Mr. Ten Percent.” Corruption charges against him were dropped--contrary to Pakistan’s law and constitution--on the orders of now ex-President Musharraf as part of the abortive US-brokered deal to create an alliance between Musharraf and Bhutto’s PPP, but the Swiss investigation into his past… more

Wrong on Russia

Articles — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0400

In the wake of Russia’s military incursion into Georgia, too many current, former, and aspiring U.S. officials are caricaturing the Russian state that was shaped and is still guided by Vladimir Putin as a revisionist aggressor. For Robert Kagan, John McCain’s neoconservative foreign policy adviser, as well as for long-time Democratic foreign policy hands Richard Holbrooke and Ronald Asmus, Russia’s actions in Georgia are comparable to Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. For Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russia’s actions are more reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

But, in reality, today’s Russia is not a resurgent imperial power. In the post-Cold War period, it was Washington, not Moscow, which… more

A Middle Road in Azerbaijan

Articles — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:30:00 -0400

There's probably no country in the world watching the Russia-Georgia conflict more intently than this small, energy-rich nation to the south and east of the turmoil. It too leans toward the West. Its oil runs through the pipeline that crosses Georgia. And it too wants to know how far Russia will go to keep its former vassal states within its sphere of influence. Azerbaijan was one of the first Soviet republics to win independence. It's a rare secular Muslim nation with a tradition of religious tolerance -- it enjoys friendly relations with Israel. It also signed on to the U.S.-led war on… more

Musharraf’s Exit Will Not End Pakistan’s Woe

Articles — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:51:00 -0400

To judge by the responses of people whom my assistant and I talked with on the streets of Peshawar this weekend, most Pakistanis will greet the departure of President Pervez Musharraf from office with great satisfaction. Fewer than 10 per cent of those interviewed said he had done a good job even at the start of his rule. The rest said they disliked or even hated Mr Musharraf for two main reasons: he has failed to stop inflation, and “he has taken American money to kill his own people”.

The tragedy of Mr Musharraf is thus that his administration has been destroyed by factors largely beyond his control… more

Why Monterey Would Be a Cool Capital

Articles — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:20:00 -0400

California's elected leaders are sweating out another summer of budget stalemate. Temporary state workers are hot under the collar after losing their jobs, and the permanent employees may see their paychecks cut. Commentators are heatedly blasting the lack of a budget and recycling old ideas about how to change the state's budget process, none of them politically viable. What better way to lower the budget heat than to relocate state elected leaders to someplace cool?

California is a big state, and there's no particular reason that legislators have to gather and negotiate a budget in hot and humid Sacramento. So here's… more

Al-Qaeda At 20... Dead or Alive?

Articles — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:11:00 -0400

Two decades after al-Qaeda was founded in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar by Osama bin Laden and a handful of veterans of the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the group is more famous and feared than ever. But its grand project -- to transform the Muslim world into a militant Islamist caliphate -- has been, by any measure, a resounding failure.

In large part, that's because bin Laden's strategy for arriving at this Promised Land is a fantasy. Al-Qaeda's leader prides himself on being a big-think strategist, but for all his brains, leadership skills and charisma, he has fastened on an overall strategy that is… more

The Newer Deal: The Path to a Democratic Supermajority

Articles — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:59:00 -0400

Virginia Woolf was wrong when she wrote, in her 1924 essay "Character in Fiction," that "on or around December 10, 1910, human nature changed." But there is no doubt that at some point between 2004 and 2008 American politics changed. It is clear to everyone, not least conservatives, that the era of right-wing hegemony that began with Richard Nixon's election in 1968 has come to an end. But this does not mean the triumph of post-1968 liberalism by default. If we are really in a new era, then the next Democratic Party will be as different and unfamiliar as the next Republican Party. Or so Democrats should hope,… more

Closing Tax Gap

Articles — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:26:00 -0400

Since the early 1980s, there has been a plethora of recommendations about how to reduce the tax gap. Many changes have been enacted, yet the gap grows. Proposals requiring additional information reporting or withholding are usually overlooked despite evidence that these techniques result in a low tax gap for wage earners. However, a significant information reporting rule was enacted in 2008. Its enactment though, seems to be more a result of its revenue potential than its role in a comprehensive tax gap reduction strategy.

Below, we'll review the tax gap and the recently enacted credit card information reporting provision, and explain reasons for the slow approach.

Tax Gap History more

Why Manners Matter at Work

Articles — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:25:00 -0400

For those of you who never bothered to pay attention to your mother, perhaps you'll listen to Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, instead.

This cheeky thought has crept into my head a couple of times in the last few weeks as I've noticed a run of stories about etiquette (or lack thereof) in the workplace. Most recently, there was the case study posted on this Web site (BusinessWeek.com, 8/12/08) about a worker who had to deal with a boorish boss.

And just a couple of weeks ago, I saw that officials in Anaheim, Calif.--home to Disneyland (DIS)-- were set to hold classes for… more

The Grim Realities of Power

Articles — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:44:00 -0400

During the Peloponnesian War, as powerful Athens prepared to put the independent-minded, but tiny, island of Melos to the sword, the Melians appealed to principles of honor and fair play in a bid to save themselves.

The Athenians scoffed, noting that "the strong do as they will and the weak suffer as they must." And suffer the Melians did -- alone and unassisted.

Georgia is a latter-day Melos. It has been battered by Russia's over-the-top reaction to what began as a shoot-out between Georgian troops and forces belonging to the Russian-supported breakaway territory of South Ossetia and segued into a clash between Russian and Georgian military units.

Even if one accepts the Russian version… more

The Other Olympic Gold

Articles — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:23:00 -0400

"One World, One Dream" -- that's the slogan the Chinese Olympic Committee chose for the 2008 Games in Beijing. But don't let the idealism fool you. This year, beneath the roar of the high-minded sloganeering, you could hear the same twin engines that have powered all modern Olympiads: nationalism and capitalism. While I was in China last week, I noticed that the media were doing the same dance they do in the U.S. They paid lip service to the Olympic ideal -- the Games as a moment when humanity puts politics aside to honor youth, talent and noble competition -- but their hook was national… more

Roots of the Conflict Between Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia

Articles — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:17:00 -0400

Many factors are involved in the present conflict but the central one is straightforward: the majority of the Ossetes living south of the main Caucasus range in Georgia wish to unite with the Ossetes living to the north, in an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation; and the Georgians, regarding South Ossetia as both a legal and an historic part of their national territory, refuse to accept this.

Twice in the past century, when the empire to the north weakened and Georgia declared its independence, the southern Ossetes revolted against Georgian rule. It happened in 1918-20, between the collapse of the Russian empire and the Soviet Union’s conquest… more

Georgia's Miscalculation

Articles — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:29:00 -0400

I was in Georgia as a stringer for The Times (London) when the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict first erupted at the end of 1990, in the context of the gathering decay of the Soviet Union. I must say that I never could have imagined then that this obscure dispute would one day hold the potential for creating a major international crisis.

This conflict has its roots in three factors: First is the desire of the Southern Ossetes, who up until 1990 formed an autonomous region of the Georgian Soviet republic, to unite in one state with their co-ethnics in North Ossetia, an autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet republic (now… more

The Star Students of the Islamic Republic

Articles — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 06:00:00 -0400

In 2003, administrators at Stanford University's Electrical Engineering Department were startled when a group of foreign students aced the notoriously difficult Ph.D. entrance exam, getting some of the highest scores ever. That the whiz kids weren't American wasn't odd; students from Asia and elsewhere excel in U.S. programs. The surprising thing, say Stanford administrators, is that the majority came from one country and one school: Sharif University of Science and Technology in Iran.

Stanford has become a favorite destination of Sharif grads. Bruce A. Wooley, a former chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, has said that's because Sharif now has one of the best undergraduate electrical-engineering programs in the world. That's no… more