Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

This week on nybooks.com: Cindy Sherman at MoMA, public schools and national security, illuminated manuscripts, legalizing drugs, the occupation and the future of Israel, and what makes countries rich or poor. Plus Mitt Romney’s laugh, the new US war in Yemen, the eurozone crisis and austerity, and a story by comics journalist Joe Sacco.
Development What Makes Countries Rich or Poor? Jared Diamond Norway, the world’s richest country, is 496 times richer than Burundi, the world’s poorest country. Why? That’s a central question of economics.
Occupation Israel in Peril David Shulman Why do Israelis cling to a policy so evidently irrational, indeed suicidal? The simple—too simple—answer is: we’re afraid. We’ve been so traumatized, first by our whole history and then by the history of this conflict, that we want at least an illusion of security, like the kind that comes from holding on to a few more rocky hills.
Art The Art of the Impersonator Sanford Schwartz On Cindy Sherman, an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
Education Do Our Public Schools Threaten National Security? Diane Ravitch Joel Klein and Condoleezza Rice’s new report on the schools is a plodding exercise in groupthink. What makes it different from earlier jeremiads is its profound indifference to the role of public education in a democratic society.
					Also in the June 7 issue John Paul Stevens on hate speech, Joyce Carol Oates on Anne Tyler, Christopher Ricks on Philip Larkin, Bill McKibben on ExxonMobil, Robert Darnton on the New York Public Library, Elaine Blair on Lena Dunham’s Girls, Marcia Angell and Ronald Dworkin on the health care law, and more.
Drugs The Rebellion in Cartagena Alma Guillermoprieto The financial health, political stability, and national security of virtually every country in the Americas has been undermined by the drug trade. For the first time, hemispheric leaders are openly debating whether the best way to stop the rolling disaster is an end to the US-dictated war on drugs.				Illuminations Books Held by Kings Eamon Duffy The British Library exhibition was a heart-stopping display of some of the most perfect surviving medieval works of art, pictures and text created for monarchs, centuries old, yet as fresh as the day they were completed.
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Comics Kushinagar Joe Sacco A graphic report from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where many of the dalits—“untouchables”—are experiencing not just abject poverty but real hunger.
Counterterrorism The New US War in Yemen Hugh Eakin When jihadists don't repent: how Saudi Arabia is redefining the war on terror.
Mitt Romney Why Is This Man Laughing? Garry Wills Everyone has noticed by now the non-laugh laugh of Mitt Romney, a kind of half-stifled barking. But what does it mean?
Europe An End to Austerity? Jeff Madrick After years of unsuccessful efforts to tackle the eurozone crisis through imposed austerity measures, observers might be forgiven for thinking there are no solutions. But there is a way out, and the recent elections across Europe may force those in power to take it.