ISSUE 152 NOVEMBER 2008

Contributors to this issue

PHILIP BALL is a science writer

PETER BAZALGETTE is a media consultant and digital investor

ROBIN BLACKBURN teaches at the New School for Social Research in New York

RODRIC BRAITHWAITE is a former British ambassador to Russia

JASON BURKE is a foreign correspondent at the Observer

MICHAEL BYWATER is a writer and critic

MARK COUSINS ’s collection Widescreen is published by Wallflower Press

CLIVE COWDERY is founder of Resolution, a financial services group

JONATHAN FORD is deputy editor of Prospect

JIM GILES is a San Francisco-based writer

ANDREW GILLIGAN is a columnist and reporter for the Evening Standard

DAVID GOLDBLATT is the author of The Ball is Round (Penguin)

DAVID GOODHART is editor of Prospect

AC GRAYLING is a philosopher

MARK HANNAM is chair of Fair Finance

CAR HILLS is a former editor of PEN News

ANATOLE KALETSKY is an economic commentator

ERIC KAUFMANN is a fellow at the Belfer Centre, Harvard University

MICHAEL KENNY is head of social policy at the IPPR

MARTIN KETTLE is a Guardian columnist

MARK KITTO runs a caféé near Shanghai

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

GWYNETH LEWIS is a poet and writer

JOHN LLEWELLYN was senior economic adviser at Lehman Brothers

MYRON MAGNET was editor of the City Journal from 1994 to 2006

ALEX MCBRIDE is a criminal barrister

KAMRAN NAZEER is the author of Send in the Idiots (Bloomsbury)

SIMON NIXON is the European editor of the WSJ ’s “Heard on the Street”column

ALEX RENTON is writing a book about the rise of the food industry

ROBERT SKIDELSKY is the author of John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946 (Pan)

MICHAEL SOUSSAN ’s book, Backstabbing for Beginners (Nation) is out in November

IAN STEWART is a mathematician

JONATHAN TEL is the author of the novel Freud’s Alphabet (Scribner)

contents

Coverstory 22A greedy giant out of control We used to think that finance performed a useful role, shunting capital to the most profitable outlets.Its growth was thus a function of success.But after the crunch,says Jonathan Ford a new generation of critics,such as Paul Woolley,are challenging this thesis

Opinions

12A good recession Is it possible to cleanse the system without too much pain? DAVID GOODHART

13The problem with PC PCs Ian Blair resigns, and the Metropolitan police remains as racially divided as ever. ANDREW GILLIGAN

16Anyone for realpolitik? Events in Georgia show how out of touch the British foreign policy establishment has become. RODRIC BRAITHWAITE

17Nature good, humans bad? Nature writing is split between those who want to describe and preserve the earth. Time to move on. GWYNETH LEWIS

Symposium

30Finance in the furnace What began as an American sub-prime mortgage problem has mutated into a terrifying global financial meltdown. But what does it mean for the economy and what lessons should we learn? MARK HANNAM,CLIVE COWDERY,ALEX RENTON,JOHN

LLEWELLYN,ROBERT SKIDELSKY & SIMON NIXON

Debate

38Should capitalism be transformed? Is the market system broken? If so, the state should intervene much more. Or will the system bounce back after a few minor adjustments? ROBIN BLACKBURN VSANATOLE KALETSKY

Essays

44Come on,people Many African American communities remain disfigured by crime and failure. And whether or not Barack Obama wins, black America will continue to argue over the “responsibility”debate sparked by Bill Cosby’s views on that failure. MYRON MAGNET

48Who needs digital privacy? A new generation of digital tracking technologies are unleashing a world of personalised adverts. Privacy campaigners are furious. But embracing these tools may be the only way to save the media from bankruptcy. PETER BAZALGETTE

My story

54Mission implausible I joined the UN as a youthful idealist, but ended up in front of Congress reporting on the oil-for-food scandal. For all its good intentions, the UN is broken. MICHAEL SOUSSAN

Witness

58Misreading the Taliban The west is losing in Afghanistan in part because it misreads its Taliban opponents. Understanding what they want is the only basis for future negotiations. JASON BURKE

2 Prospect NOVEMBER2008 Special report

60How Merck made a killing Stockmarket pressure to find “blockbuster”drugs has forced drug companies to push products to market ever more aggressively. In the case of Merck’s painkiller Vioxx, this had disastrous and lethal results. This is the story of how a blockbuster backfired. JIM GILES

Columns

10Washington watch Who’d be in Obama’s cabinet? TUMBLER

20Common law Caught red-handed. ALEX McBRIDE

37China café é The churlish Chinese. MARK KITTO

43This sporting life Palestinian autosports. DAVID GOLDBLATT

52Lab report The state of British physics. PHILIP BALL

66Brussels diary Is the EU having a good crisis? MANNEKEN PIS

88The prisoner Irather like this new prison. CAR HILLS

Regulars

4Letters 6News & curiosities 8Grayling’s question AC GRAYLING 8Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 86The generalist 87The list

Forthcoming

JONATHAN FORD profiles Mikhail Fridman

GEOFF MULGAN asks if Charles Murray’s new book is immoral

JONATHAN POWER interviews Paul McCartney

ANTONIA QUIRKE’ s tour of shopping malls

The next issue of Prospect will be published on 20th November

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

online arts & books

Prospect online

Fiction

Archives Every article from every issue of Prospect .

68Shadow of candles flickering red Music helped Chen Wei to survive the cultural revolution. But it also brought him an unexpected lesson in desire. JONATHAN TEL

Reviews

74An Asian whitewash Ziauddin Sardar’s latest book touches on many of the most troubling questions of British Asian identity. But his blinkered adherence to the politics of resentment means it contains few useful answers. KAMRAN NAZEER

76Heaven scent An extraordinary new book shows that behind the marketing clichéés, perfume can still be an art of pure beauty. MICHAEL BYWATER

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Web exclusives

BECKY HOGGE replies to Peter Bazalgette on digital privacy DAVID HANNAY and PHILIP BOBBITT debate whether there should be a League of Democracies

JOSHUA KURLANTZICK on how the US’s financial loss is China’s gain

PETER BERGEN replies to Jason Burke

77Two cheers for democracy In his study of Britain’s democratic traditions, David Marquand offers a history that is also a masterclass in politics. MICHAEL KENNY

Online archive

Revisit our past coverage of some of the topics covered in this issue.

78The peaceful xenophobes Two new works on empire and nationalism should make us think again about conflating xenophobia, nationalism and aggression. ERIC KAUFMANN

Arts columns

71Private view The art of an imaginary island.

BEN LEWIS

72Widescreen Stanley Donen’s dark direction.

MARK COUSINS

United Nations

DAVID RIEFF argues that the UN faces irrelevance In reply, EDWARD MORTIMER asks if Rieff has a better idea

DAVID HANNAY reviews Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s memoirs

The pharmaceutical industry

RICHARD HORTON on the fall of big pharma SHEREEN EL FEKI looked at how to get medicines to the world’s poor ANNIE MACCOBY BERGLOF on drugs and bipolar disorder

80Performance notes The Brahms enigma. MARTIN KETTLE

85Smallscreen There’s nothing real about reality television any more. PETER BAZALGETTE

African-Americans

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER makes the case for reparations for slavery

EDWARD SMITH meets the ghetto cricketers of Los Angeles

CAROL M SWAIN surveys the state of post-Katrina black America

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