COVER: "Obama Is Wrong" (p. 20). As the debate over the rescue of the
financial system-which is crucial in stabilizing the economy and returning the
country to prosperity-unfolds, Paul Krugman has emerged as President Obama's
toughest liberal critic, writes Newsweek Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas in his
profile of Krugman. Krugman, a columnist for The New York Times, a professor
at Princeton and a Nobel Prize winner in economics, was a scourge of the Bush
administration, but has been critical, if not hostile, to the Obama White
House, skeptical of the bank bailout and pessimistic about the economy. As
the debate continues, there are worries among the establishment that his
"despair" over the administration's bailout plan might be right. "Krugman may
be exaggerating the decay of the financial system or the devotion of Obama's
team to preserving it. But what if he's right, or part right?," Thomas writes.
"What if President Obama is squandering his only chance to step in and
nationalize ... the banks before they collapse altogether?"
http://www.newsweek.com/id/191393
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090329/91457 )
BUSINESS: "The Education of Timothy Geithner" (p. 26). Senior Editor
Michael Hirsh profiles Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is finally
starting to hit his stride. For two months he seemed to stumble again and
again as Obama's point man on the financial crisis. He disappointed markets
and pundits with what seemed like hesitant half-steps, and the attacks on him
grew ever more savage. The criticisms have lessened since last Monday, March
23, when Geithner delivered the long-awaited details of his scheme to save the
banking system. And a few days later he revealed the most dramatic plan for
regulating finance since the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 (the dismantling of
which a decade ago may have contributed to the crisis). Most of all, Geithner
seemed, at long last, to take charge.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/191394
JONATHAN ALTER: "Caught in the Act of Thinking" (p. 29). Senior Editor
Jonathan Alter writes that the same reporters who had blasted President Obama
for demeaning the presidency by cracking jokes on "The Tonight Show" and
drinking a beer at a basketball game now claim Obama's boring. On Sunday he
had to defend himself on "60 Minutes" from the charge that he was "punch
drunk" with mirth; by Wednesday, he was derided as too serious and
professorial. However, Obama seems perfectly content to be caught in the act
of thinking in prime time. In doing so, he may be making news in a larger
sense. He was signaling that he actually trusts people to stick with him
through a complex, long-term argument. This is a radical idea for an American
president.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/191407
ECONOMY: "The Peril of Financial Linguistics" (p. 34). Senior Editor
Daniel Gross writes that the toxic assets, poorly performing mortgages and
collateralized debt obligations festering on the books of banks that made
truly execrable lending decisions have been transformed in the latest federal
bank- rescue plan into "legacy loans" and "legacy securities"-safe for
professional investors to purchase, provided, of course, they get lots of
cheap government credit. More insidiously, the word "legacy" is frequently
deployed to deflect blame. Legacy financial issues are, by definition,
holdovers from prior regimes. The legacy gambit is necessary, in part,
because the prior nomenclature used to describe the stuff in question was so
corrosive. In trying to rebrand dodgy financial instruments, Treasury
secretaries like Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner are continuing a recent
tradition. So much of the finance sector's innovation in the past 30 years, it
turns out, wasn't developing new stuff, but rather developing new ways of
talking about preexisting stuff.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/191397
INTERNATIONAL: "The Return of the Baathists" (p. 36). Correspondent Larry
Kaplow reports that for years Iraqi parliamentarian Saleh al-Mutlaq has been
the foremost defender of Iraqis with ties to Saddam Hussein's old party. In
return, Mutlaq and his allies have been called just about everything from
opportunists to terrorists. Nevertheless, he claims, he told Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki four years ago that someday Maliki would beg the
Baathists to come back. Now Iraq's fiercely anti-Baathist prime minister has
come close to fulfilling Mutlaq's implausible prediction-though on his own
terms. Maliki announced that Iraq would welcome the return of "those who at
one time were obligated to be on the side of the former regime," as long as
they accept Iraq's new order. After six years, Iraq's ostracism of old
Baathists is easing.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/191404
BUSINESS: "MadMan" (p. 38). Senior Editor Daniel Lyons profiles brand
genius Peter Arnell, who recently received criticism for his Tropicana
redesign. One blogger called Arnell "the Bernie Madoff of brands." In
February, Tropicana announced it would revert to the old packaging. That
fiasco will cost Tropicana some money, but it could do even more damage to
Arnell, who's been called one of the great brand impresarios of our age. Over
the past two decades his agency has done high-profile work for clients like
Samsung, Banana Republic, McDonald's, Home Depot and Pfizer. But in fact
Arnell's greatest invention may be himself. Over the years Arnell, 50, has
turned himself into a powerhouse brand, wrapping himself in myth and packaging
his personal narrative with the same flair he brings to a Super Bowl ad.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/191396
SOCIETY: "Tales of a Modern Diva" (p. 42). Associate Editor Jessica
Bennett writes on the "high-maintenance" generation and how our obsession with
beauty is changing our kids. Girls today become accustomed to beauty
treatments at a younger age and with more vigor than generations past. They
are salon vets before they enter elementary school. Reared on reality TV and
celebrity makeovers, girls are using beauty products earlier, spending more
and still feeling worse about themselves. Much has been made of the
oversexualization of today's tweens. But what hasn't been discussed is what we
might call their "diva-ization" -- before they even hit the tween years.
According to a Newsweek examination of the most common beauty trends, by the
time your 10-year-old is 50, she'll have spent nearly $300,000 on just her
hair and face. Today's girls are getting caught up in the beauty-maintenance
game at ages when they should be learning how to read -- and long before their
beauty needs enhancing. This is a group that's grown up on pop culture that
screams, again and again, that everything, everything, is a candidate for
upgrading.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/191247
ESSAY: "The Columbine Generation" (p. 56). General Editor Ramin Setoodeh
reviews Dave Cullen's book "Columbine," which will likely be the definitive
account for what happened during the Columbine High School shooting a decade
ago. There had been school shootings before, but this was the deadliest, the
most horrifying, the one that wouldn't heal. Cullen has a gift for
excruciating detail and he shows every bullet fired and every victim taken
down. He also, despite all odds, manages to humanize the killers, Dylan
Klebold and Eric Harris, along with debunking some of the biggest fallacies
about them.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/191392
