Revenge of the Wall St. Nerds
An exposé of the math guys who broke the economy The quants: how a new breed of math whizzes conquered Wall Street and nearly destroyed it, by Scott Patterson, Crown Business, 2010. $27.00, 337 pp. Wall Street titans...
Rejecting extremes
A global examination of church and state Taming the gods: religion and democracy on three continents, by Ian Buruma, Princeton University Press, 2010. $19.95, 132 pp. In his new book Taming the Gods, British-Dutch...
Young Liberal American Jewish Zionism
In his recent essay “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” Peter Beinart laments the disconnect young The view of Jerusalem from the exit...
Judging Kagan, Judging Us
I like to think of David Brooks as The New York Times’ “Chronicler of the Powerful and Rich.” He’s gotten some pretty extravagant (and hilarious) criticism...
Hypocritical Mediocrity
Why did Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad get a student visa and U.S. citizenship? Marty Peretz argued yesterday that he shouldn’t have because he was...
Not Victims: Another Case Against the Clubs
I want to comment on Sam’s final club post, because I find it compelling but nevertheless insufficient. Here’s why. Sam gives us the standard-line “progressive...
Justice Stevens Lets Go — Better Hang On!
My Harvard Independent column for this week addresses the retirement of John Paul Stevens and the issue of picking his successor. Read the original here. If...
Harvard Model UN: Self-congratulations or a glimpse at how the world could be run?
Last weekend, Harvard’s Model United Nations conference for college students took place for the 56th time, drawing thousands of students from all over the world...
Weighing In: Harvard’s Supposed Crisis of Faith
In his post “Harvard’s Supposed Crisis of Faith,” Sam Barr criticizes Lisa Miller’s recent Newsweek article about the study of religion at Harvard: “Of...
Why Andrew Sullivan is a Hack, Part I
No, I don’t think he’s an anti-semite (see Jonathan Chait on that). But he has been reckless enough with the truth, and obsessed enough with Israel,...

