Ascertaining whether generation after generation of Americans managed to elect mostly scoundrels or mostly idiots is not particularly edifying in itself (except in those cases where idiocy and villainy overlap in a spectacular way). It will be far more interesting for them to simply observe that democracy managed to produce a situation in America where only scoundrels and idiots were in charge of telling everyone else what to do.

Sadly, many young people who can’t get jobs have no work experience to show for themselves at all. They have been wildly misled all their lives about the great glories that await anyone who “stays in school” and gets great grades. There are innumerable aerospace engineers, mathematicians, and even lawyers who are in this situation, to say nothing of sociologists, historians, and people with degrees in communications and marketing. Adding to the problem today is the burden of student loans. Kids are graduating today with six figures in debt that they will immediately be forced to service if they accept employment. But with no prospects outside Wal-Mart and Starbucks, they opt to stay in school and get yet another degree, hoping all the while that the labor market will turn around. This is a terrible trap.

Hallelujah! Obama is cheering the news of 1,500 permanent jobs. The only problem is those jobs are going to cost taxpayers $1,333,333 each.

Obama’s spending alternatives are limited, so another small stimulus package will be a token to his supporters. But he won’t cut the deficit to the 4.2% of GDP he promised to his G20 friends (from the current 10.1%). He won’t raise taxes soon because he wants to be reelected. The economy will stall for reasons I have previously discussed. That leaves inflation

Sandra Day O’Connor and George Nethercutt are correct that too many Americans lack sufficient understanding and appreciation of U.S. history and of the meaning of this nation’s founding documents (“Celebrate America by learning about her,” July 3). In no group of Americans does this ignorance run more deeply and malignantly than it does for those in Congress and in the White House.

A well-trained man knows how to answer questions; an educated man knows what questions are worth asking.

The neoliberal policy revolution that began in the late 1970s might be the most important recent event in world history. But it remains a curiously elusive and underreported phenomenon. Many on the left question the motives behind the reforms, as well as their efficacy, while some on the right talk as if the neoliberal revolution never happened.