On the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird some commentators are shocked to discover, and thus prone to condemn it, that the book's hero, father, lawyer, and philosopher Atticus Finch, does not try to break the system he was born into but simply navigates it, complete with its prejudices, that are by definition are his too. Deconstructing Atticus.

Amity Shlaes on the real lesson of the late 1930s double plunge while Ian Bremmer discovers the state. The Federal Reserve's random walk, more on the consequences of child mutilation, and pity those merchants that actually thought that England would do well in the World Cup unless ....

For me the defining theme in Shakespeare's plays is how human beings are completely defined by the circumstances of their birth by the communities they are born into. The stories unwind around the moral decisions that individuals make as a consequence. The easiest examples are Lear's Edmund the bastard son of Gloucester 'Now God stand up for bastards!' and The Merchant of Venice's Shylock 'If you prick us do we not bleed' but this applies to all the women, idiots, kings, princesses, merchants, sailors, farmers that show up in his plays. So equally are Juliet and Romeo.

So it is true also of Atticus Finch who is heroic enough, a single father trying to raise two good kids at a time of awful economic and social misery, by using what status he has in the community to eke out a drop of honest justice where justice is difficult to find. No historic grand heroic individual, Finch's courage is more enduring because it speaks to the chance that we all have as individuals to make what is wrong more right in our own way. You don't have to be Spartacus or Gandhi or Martin Luther King to make the world a better place.

Fifty years ago Sunday, a novel hit America's bookshelves that changed the way millions thought about race and the inexplicable South. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/09/AR2010070903715.html?wprss=rss_opinions

Related.

In 1954  ... http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/10/090810fa_fact_gladwell

Amity Shlaes on how the government is getting in the way of the only real solution to unemployment and debt, people that want to build businesses.

With high unemployment .... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/08/AR2010070804272.html?wpisrc=nl_most

Ian Bremmer, in a book destined more to be talked about than read The End of the Free Market, makes the same point.

With no signage, and no discerning features, other than a few small permanently closed doors, it could easily be a New York Police Department lock-up or an unused office block.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7883061/The-West-should-fear-the-growth-of-state-capitalism-Ian-Bremmer.html

Related.

Political risk guru Ian Bremmer examines the growing momentum of "state capitalism" in his new book The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War between States and Corporations? (Portfolio, May 2010).  http://www.cceia.org/resources/articles_papers_reports/0050.html

 

Count the books now on store shelves that "reconstruct the crimes" that triggered the global meltdown. http://eurasia.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/05/18/the_end_of_the_free_market

 

Political risk analyst Ian Bremmer distinguishes between state capitalist and free market economies, exploring the advantages and disadvantages corporations experience in each. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fn33n4Csi0
 

The Fed can't know.

When Steve Liesman gave his Friday tutorial on CNBC, he summarized the various views within the Fed by quoting some of the members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Essentially, there are three views. http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/07/steve-liesman-and-the-fed%e2%80%99s-balance-sheet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBigPicture+%28The+Big+Picture%29

Mind numbing.

Senior doctors have called for male circumcision to be offered by the NHS amid fears that unregulated operations are leading to serious injuries among Muslim boys. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/11/doctors-urge-circumcision-on-nhs

The real price of England's early exit.

England's disastrous World Cup effort has resulted in £100m of merchandise being either returned or unsold. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/englands-loss-retailers-hold-163100m-in-unsold-merchandise-2023647.html

Unless there is innovation. Thanks to David of London for sending this in.