Was the Great Panic of 2008 preventable?

It's been two years since Lehman Brothers failed (Sept. 15, 2008), and we still can't conclusively answer this question: What if the government had saved Lehman? Its bankruptcy was pivotal. Until then, deteriorating housing and mortgage markets had triggered what seemed a serious -- but not unprecedented -- recession. Once Lehman failed, the economy went into a frenzied free fall. It&apo

Out of Iran, But Not Yet Home Free

The hours Sarah Shourd spent between leaving Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where she was in solitary confinement for more than a year, and crossing Iranian airspace must have been the most excruciating and longest hours of her life. I know that because I have been there.

Spoilers Suck!

Here's an advantage that television creators have over movie creators: there's a sense of community created among fans of a TV show that a movie never gets to amass—and generally, that community takes its cues from the top. If Matthew Weiner makes clear that the "Mad Men" community doesn't tolerate spoilers, there's a stigma around them. That's why the marketing campaign for "Catfish," the new doc

Chilean Miners: Surviving the Darkness

The plight of the 33 miners trapped in northern Chile for more than a month so far is harrowing enough. They must try to survive 90 percent humidity and avoid starvation. They also have to keep their sanity, which becomes harder as they confront another present danger: the darkness.

Neither Starbucks, McDonald's Wins Coffee War

Remember when Starbucks drinkers were elitists, Dunkin' Donuts adherents feared non-English languages and McDonald's coffee became coff-"ay"? Thankfully, the coffee wars are over, but who won?

Without Hamas, Palestinians Can't Make a Peace Deal

The most important Middle East peace talks aren’t the ones between Israelis and Palestinians. They’re between Palestinians and Palestinians.

GOP Infighting Threatens Governor Pickups in Massachusetts and Colorado

Since there's no doubt that November's going to be bloody for Democrats, the question now is how bloody. Two bright spots in a sea of inky black: Colorado and Massachusetts, where infighting among conservatives threatens to derail two good prospects for Republican takeovers of governor's mansions.

How Thomas Keller Transformed American Dining

How Thomas Keller transformed American cuisine by combining French snobbery with a greenmarket sensibility.

Jerry Brown's California Campaign Bumbles and Fumbles With Clinton Remark

You can't teach an old dog new tricks, but it's reasonable to expect that he knows the old ones. But California Democrats are learning that even that isn't a sure bet, as gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown keeps demonstrating in his bumbling campaign against Meg Whitman.

Is There Really Another Secret Iranian Uranium-Enrichment Facility?

Nuclear-proliferation experts are expressing deep skepticism regarding a controversial Iranian exile group’s claims that Iran is building a new secret underground uranium-enrichment site not far from Tehran.

Large Banks Breathe Easy on Basel

Investors breathed a sigh of relief Monday, as stocks in the largest U.S. banks reacted strongly following the Basel Committee's Sunday announcement of higher global capital standards.

Struggling Automakers Find Open Road in Brazil

There aren’t many bright spots in the global auto industry—so when carmakers find one, they go all in. With ebbing demand in the United States, and subsidies propping up Japan’s industry set to expire, the real bright spot is Brazil. In 2003 the country was the world’s 10th-largest car market; this year it is on pace to surpass Germany as No. 4. By 2014, demand is forecast to hit 4 million new car

Adobe CEO Narayen on Hiring, E-Mail, and Apple

Software maker Adobe Systems Inc. is responsible for many of the big-name products in Web publishing, including Flash, Photoshop, and Acrobat. NEWSWEEK chairman Richard M. Smith spoke with Adobe's CEO, Shantanu Narayen.

Alaska Wants Sea Lions off Endangered List

The endangered-species list is supposed to offer temporary refuge. In its 37-year history, however, more than a thousand animals have been added and only a few dozen removed (most often because of extinction or miscounts). Part of the problem is the federal government, which admits that it’s slow to remove recovered species. That chafes governors, who curb industry to protect the creatures. Now Al

Latinos Unlikely to Cast Protest Vote in November

As polls show voters defecting in droves from Democrats, one bastion of support you’d think the party could count on is Hispanics. They turned out in force in 2006 and 2008 to punish Republicans for their shrill rhetoric on illegal immigration, reversing the party’s historic gains among Latinos under George W. Bush. Now the GOP is at it again. Earlier this year Republican Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizon

Politics Through the Prism of Twitter and Facebook

The best way to understand what is going on in politics this fall is to think of the difference between Facebook and Twitter. Barack Obama in 2008 was a product of Facebook, a one-man brand. The Tea Party counterrevolution of 2010 is more diffuse and fast-moving, a Twitter-based hive mind with no one central figure.

Why the Castle–O'Donnell Delaware Senate Race Is Tuesday's Must-Watch

Primary season might be winding down, but Tuesday night's Republican Senate primaries in Delaware and, to a lesser extent, New Hampshire, are still among the most important of the year. The results will be a bellwether for whether Republicans can take control of Congress in November, and could help shape the national scene headed into the 2012 elections.

The Twilight of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

With the courts, Congress and the Pentagon moving away from the ban on gays in the military, the end of the Clinton-era policy appears to be coming.

As Death Toll Rises, Media Should Look at Role in Quran-Burning Flap

In the end, Pastor Terry Jones bowed to pressure, and perhaps his conscience, in deciding not to burn Qurans. But it was too late. Will the media now reconsider their role in abetting Jones?

Ichiro Ozawa Is Japan's Unlikely Savior

To his detractors, Ichiro Ozawa represents the worst of Japanese politics. Self-righteous, corrupt, a power-hungry political operator, “shadow shogun.” He has been called all these things, as well as “the destroyer” for the way he has created and wrecked three parties in two decades. Three months ago, he resigned from his post as secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Japan, which he helped

In Arizona, the Greens See Red

Court hearings are scheduled today to further explore allegations of voter fraud among the state’s Green Party candidates. The actions come just as a new group, Truth AZ (TruthAZ.com), has registered with the Arizona secretary of state to fight what it calls rampant corruption ahead of the November elections.

How Our Quest for Bargains Could Hurt the Economy

Welcome to the lowball culture. In a world of sluggish growth, excess capacity, and depressed expectations, buyers of goods and services—labor, houses, and restaurant meals, among others—have come to believe that desperate sellers should take any offer they make. But that kind of systemic bargain hunting can create a dangerous spiral: employers short-change workers, workers buy fewer goods—and the

Castro Tells the Truth About Cuba

He has outlasted eight U.S. presidents, survived countless CIA efforts to do him in, and his communist regime has remained in power for a generation after the collapse of his Soviet sponsors. So what does the leader of the 1959 Cuban revolution think now of the system he created? Last week _The Atlantic_’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported Fidel Castro’s startlingly honest assessment: “The Cuban model doe

Tracking Your Period? There's an App for That.

When Steve Jobs introduced Apple's new tablet computer earlier this year, there were plenty of snickers about the menstrual undertones of the name "iPad." Now it turns out that the device—and its mobile cousins—are actually useful for, uh, tracking periods.

The Circus Comes to Ground Zero

Early in the afternoon of the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in lower Manhattan family members wearing white ribbons were outnumbered on the downtown streets. The dominant point of interest was not the massive pit where the World Trade Center once stood but the site of a former Burlington Coat Factory two blocks away where a Islamic cultural center has been proposed. The debate has opened

Atlanta Vouchers Don't Solve Poverty Problems

By the end of the year, Atlanta is scheduled to become the first city to raze all its public housing, the culmination of a 15-year effort to move low-income city dwellers into healthier suburban communities. The former residents (the last of whom vacated in December) received what was, in theory, a ticket to a new life: a voucher good for two thirds of rent anywhere in the U.S. Following Atlanta,

German Scholar Rauf Ceylan on Integration

Germany’s immigration fears have been on full display thanks to a new book by provocateur Thilo Sarrazin that claims the country is being undermined by its growing Muslim population. NEWSWEEK’s Mike Giglio spoke with Rauf Ceylan—a leading religious scholar at the University of Osnabrück who is leading a pilot imam-education program this fall, and whose new book, _The Preachers of Islam,_ features

Morocco Surges Ahead in Solar-Power Race

For decades, Morocco, the only North African nation without large quantities of oil, combed the surrounding desert in search of fossil fuels. But roughly a year and a half ago, the country shifted gears and turned to a resource that exists in abundance across the region: the sun.

How the Recession Is Redefining Failure

We’ve spent more than 60 years dissecting Willy Loman, the character artfully sketched by Arthur Miller in "Death of a Salesman." Willy is, perhaps, America’s consummate loser, a failure to his family. But if you can bear with me for one moment, imagine he lived in current times, not amid the postwar prosperity of 1949.

What Gates Plans to Do Before He Leaves Office

Robert Gates has one last, crucial mission before he leaves office, and it’s not in Afghanistan or Iraq. It’s in Washington—within the hallowed halls of the Pentagon.