Good Reads: Congress's failure, China's looming crisis, and sarcasm explained
(Read article summary)Today's Good Reads include a look at the good in Congress's looming budget failure, how China's bubble may burst, and why sarcasm could make you smarter.
There’s something about an abyss that tends to attract daredevils in Washington.
Most people would likely do everything they could to avoid defaulting on their loans – as the US government came close to doing this summer. Most also bring, or attempt to bring, their spending in line with their revenue – something Congress seems to be unable to do ahead of their deadline this week.
Yet the seasoned leaders of Washington are throwing caution to the wind, and pressing the accelerator for a Thelma-and-Louise finale.
Bless their hearts, they keep the news industry alive.
Toward the end of last week, the members of Congress’s “super committee” – do they wear capes? – started sending out signals that they would fail to reach a compromise to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade. Unlike past budget impasses, where Congress’s failure to pass a budget meant that government literally had to shut down for a few weeks until Congress could rediscover the spirit of compromise, there appear to be automatic spending cuts built into the process in both defense and domestic budgets.
But the Monitor’s Mark Trumbull writes that there are some pundits who believe this seemingly messy affair might actually be good for democracy. The new view in Washington is that failure might be good, he writes:
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