The inaugural issue of Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics is out. The great American short story is still being written, and awaits its readers: In an age pressed for time, rediscovering the pleasures of compression in the work of masters such as Flannery O’Connor, John Cheever and Donald Barthelme. From The Guardian, why books won't change your life: Publishers love to say a novel is unputdownable, or life-changing, but you can't imagine anything worse; and a look at how Atlas Shrugged is absurd but strangely compelling. From The Nation, a review of True Crime: An American Anthology. RIP, MBA: The economic crisis has exposed the myth of business-school expertise. From TAP, Robert Kuttner on ten radical remedies America needs; Robert H. Frank on post-consumer prosperity: Finding new opportunities amid the economic wreckage; and Bush kept choices about taxes separate from questions of services — Progressives have turned the tables. From Eat the State, Gary E. Locke on why he loves paying taxes; but why do so many of us pay our income taxes? An Idiot's Guide to Square Notes: You can't get too far into Catholic sacred music without running into "neumes," those little square notes on four lines that look beautiful if oddly antiquated.
