James Surowiecki | New Yorker | 26 December 2011 On the return of "layaway", or saving in instalments for big-ticket items and buying when you've saved enough. Antithesis of, and antidote to credit card binge. Not rational perhaps, but works because money to hand is money spent Comments Jackson Lears | London Review Of Books | 29 December 2011 "How did Obama develop his paradoxical combination of fierce ambition and persistent timidity?" Hostile assessment of US president says part of the answer may lie in his family background and a "genealogy of disappointment" Comments Peter Oborne | Telegraph | 28 December 2011 "Modernisation" is little more than set of techniques for securing, keeping power. Practitioners included Blair, Mandelson, Cameron. Worked in electoral terms; useless at tackling national problems. Looks intellectually bankrupt now Comments Tim Murphy | Do The Math | 20 December 2011 Physicist investigating how we can replace fossil fuels turns attention to hydroelectric power. Steady, self-storing, efficient, low-carbon. Better than tidal. But a few calculations show it'll never be a big player Comments Juliette Cerf | Telerama/Presseurop | 30 December 2011 High-flying interview with literary scholar and polymath. Interesting throughout. "Our world is shrinking. Science is becoming inaccessible to us. Is it possible to be literate if you do not understand non-linear equations?" Comments Sergei Karaganov | Foreign Affairs | 28 December 2011 Harsh, perceptive global view from dean of Russian foreign policy analysts. Western democracy follows communism into oblivion. Authoritarianism emerges as best form of government. History returns to "customary state of chaos" Comments | 
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