Newsweek back issues from December 2008:
Don't Get Depressed, It's Not 1929.(Daniel Gross; MONEY CULTURE)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Daniel Gross Instead of out-of-work men asking, 'Brother, can you spare a dime?' we have executives asking Congress if it can spare $100 billion. It's difficult to avoid the ubiquitous comparisons between the current sad state of financial affairs and the ...
Now We're Cooking With -- Batteries.(Project Green)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Keith Naughton; With Patrick Crowley and Hilary Shenfeld Electric storage is the weak link in a high-tech world. Fixing it could improve our lives--and the planet. The energizer bunny is nowhere to be found inside the suburban Milwaukee research lab run by ...
Let's Stop the Whining.(Project Green; SATIRE)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Fake Steve Jobs; Fake Steve Jobs is the alter ego of NEWSWEEK's Daniel Lyons. Yes, batteries suck. But the iPhone is still a piece of heaven in your pocket. I can't believe I'm saying this, but for once I actually agree with something a hack NEWSWEEK writer ...
Laughing In the Face of Change.(Turning Point)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Carlos Mencia; Mencia, creator of Comedy Central's "Mind of Mencia," is on an 80-city tour. By trading a secure career for his passion, this comic found himself. Right now, a lot of people are losing their jobs. They're saying, "Oh, my God, what am I gonna ...
Who's Watching the Money?(Business; THE ECONOMY)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Michael Hirsh and Daniel Gross With the economy worsening and the Bush team adrift, queasy markets are looking to Obama to set the course. But is naming a Treasury secretary enough? Barack Obama thought he could have a fairly normal transition. Oh, he knew ...
President 2.0.(Business; TECHNOLOGY)(Barack Obama)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Daniel Lyons and Daniel Stone; With Barrett Sheridan Obama harnessed the grass-roots power of the Web to get elected. How will he use that power now? Barack Obama is the first major politician who really "gets" the Internet. Sure, Howard Dean used the Web to ...
Obama's Nuclear Reservations.(Project Green)(Barack Obama)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Daren Briscoe Political squabbling over how to store waste could hold back the industry. It was one of Barack Obama's big applause lines. At nearly every campaign stop, the candidate promised to end our dependence on foreign oil and slash carbon emissions 80 ...
Putting Idle Hands to Work.(Project Green)(Van Jones)(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008 ... Author and activist Van Jones says the quest for cleaner energy can create big job gains right now. For the Obama administration, aggressively pursuing a new energy strategy will be a top priority. Environmental activist Van Jones, author of "The Green Collar Economy," agrees ...
The Greener Way to Pay.(Project Green; WHICH IS WORSE?)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Daniel Stone Printing cash consumes energy, but it beats credit. It takes an enormous quantity of energy to print, transport, count and sort the dollar bills in your wallet. The U.S. Bureau of Printing and Engraving cranks out $750 million in new currency each ...
Those Are Fashionable Genes.(Enterprise; BYTES)(genetic-testing and social-networking sites)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Elisa Mala The building block of life, DNA, is getting a life of its own. "Spit parties" have become the latest social-networking craze, like the one recently organized by 23andMe, a genetic-testing company named for the number of chromosome pairs in the human genome and ...
A New Kind of Ladies' Room.(Enterprise; BYTES)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Tiffanie Wen For women travelers looking for a little extra security, business and luxury hotels are putting aside space exclusively for female guests and stocking rooms with girlie goodies. In Singapore, the new Naumi boutique hotel offers five ladies-only suites ...
Quick Read.(Enterprise; BYTES)('Call Me Ted,' 'Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy,' and 'A Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt')(Book review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: John Sparks Call Me Ted by Ted Turner, with Bill Burke Whether he's excoriating Time Warner's bosses, mocking religious believers or drunkenly and publicly savoring his America's Cup win in the streets of Newport, R.I., Turner has never been a ...
You Can Go Home Again.(Enterprise; MY TURN)
Dec 01, 2008; ... After 31 years in a corporate job in Manhattan, I'm taking huge risks to open a diner in faraway Maine. If I'm lucky, my family will have a better, simpler life. It hit me one day in 2005 walking up Eighth Avenue on my way to work at NEWSWEEK. During my bus ride from New Jersey, ...
The Paper Chasers.(Enterprise; STRATEGIES)(Xerox Corp.)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Daniel Lyons Isn't it ironic: Xerox is hoping it can profit by teaching companies how to reduce their printing. It's Sophie Vandebroek's favorite magic trick. Vandebroek, the chief technology officer at Xerox, is standing before a roomful of people at the ...
Heading for a Wipeout.(Enterprise; RETAIL)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Caitlin McDevitt The airlines' new fees for baggage will hit skiers hard--and ski-equipment retailers aren't happy. Eddy Korbel has spent 14 years in what might seem an especially challenging profession: selling ski equipment to the perpetually tanned ...
Let's Talk Touchdowns.(Enterprise)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Daniel McGinn In a down economy, a networking guru is hosting Football 101 tutorials. Her theory: being able to discuss sports may spur friendships and help build careers. As soon as the invitation arrived, Joy Cline Phinney began to get nervous. Phinney is a ...
America Welcomes A New President.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
Dec 01, 2008 ... Readers weigh in on Barack Obama's victory and NEWSWEEK's election coverage. Many of those responding to our cover story were elated by Barack Obama's triumph on Nov. 4. One called the president-elect "the right person at the right time to lead our nation," adding, "I am proud ...
The Editor's Desk.(The Editor's Desk)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Daniel Klaidman Writing in The New York Times, columnist David Brooks lightly mocked the phenomenon as "O-phoria," the wall-to-wall coverage of Barack Obama's election--the insta-books, the quickie documentaries and, yes, the magazine covers. But it is hard to overstate ...
TARP and ADD.(George F. Wil; THE LAST WORD)(Troubled Asset Relief Program)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: George F. Will Congress has made bureaucrats into legislators; or perhaps it has made Hank Paulson into the fourth branch of government. It is futile, but not pointless, to note that the federal government's blizzard of bail-outs is unconstitutional. At least ...
Africa's Other Holocaust.(International; PORTFOLIO)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Rod Nordland Barack Obama spoke often and passionately about Darfur while campaigning. But the African holocaust that will confront him first is the ongoing slaughter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More than 5 million have died in that conflict since 1996, and ...
A Path Out Of the Woods.(Fareed Zakaria; WORLD VIEW)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Fareed Zakaria We need China to see that its interests are aligned with America's. If not, things could get very, very ugly. For weeks the world has eagerly awaited word from the Obama transition team about the people who will head up the next American ...
An Actress Moves On, Or Tries To.(Entertainment; MOVIES)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Ramin Setoodeh You can almost touch the sadness in Michelle Williams's movie 'Wendy and Lucy.' Michelle Williams disappears so deeply into her new movie "Wendy and Lucy," it's like you're watching a documentary. Williams plays Wendy, a down-on-her-luck woman ...
The Picture of Health.(My Turn)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Kim Lute; Lute lives in Atlanta. Conventionally speaking, I'm unhealthy. But perhaps it's time we redefined the word. On a recent Monday morning, I underwent a routine liver biopsy. I changed into one of those awful hospital gowns, signed away a slew of legal ...
Just One More Frame!(Politics)(Michelle Obama faces task of raising presidential daughters)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Suzanne Smalley; With Katie Connolly and Sarah Kliff How do you raise kids in the White House and 'keep them normal,' too? The White House may be the most important center of power in the world. But it's also just a home, a place that can make kids feel happy ...
Show-And-Tell Time.(Barack Obama on Washington D.C.'s educational system)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert He's promised to bring change to Washington, but does Obama's calculus include D.C.'s awful schools? When the time came to find new schools for their two daughters, Michelle and Barack Obama did not even look at a public ...
Letter? I Never Got Any Letter, Herbert.(Jonathan Alter; HISTORY)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Jonathan Alter Before his Inaugural, FDR craftily dodged attempts to saddle him with Hoover's crisis. What Obama can learn. Americans are scared and eager for change. They elect the Democratic presidential candidate by a healthy margin, in part because they ...
NO HEADLINE.(Malia and Sasha Obama on going to school when they move to the White House)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Weston Kosova "It's the talk of the town -- Where will President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, decide to send 10-year-old daughter Malia and 7-year-old daughter Sasha to school when they move into the White House?" --The Washington Post TO: ...
Even Sinatra Took Some Cues From Q.(Newsmakers; Q&A)(Quincy Jones on growing up )(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008 ... Quincy Jones--musician, producer, Oprah's BFF--has put his life (including his school report cards) into a coffee-table book: "The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey and Passions.'' He spoke to Allison Samuels: You had a rough childhood. My dad worked as a carpenter ...
Tears For Spears.(Britney Spears documentary)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008 ... Britney Spears is sad. Really sad. So we see in "Britney: For the Record," a new MTV doc that trails the beleaguered star as she tries to reboot her life. She starts her mornings with a bowl of Velveeta cheese and ...
Tots And the City.(celebrities naming their babies after New York City areas)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008 ... There might be hazards to raising your kids in New York City, but how about naming them after an outer borough? Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz just welcomed a baby boy--Bronx ....
Perspectives.(Perspectives)(Quotation)
Dec 01, 2008 ... "She's ready." A confidant of Hillary Rodham Clinton, after reports that the senator will give up her seat to become secretary of state in the Obama administration "Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money." Speaker of the House Nancy ...
Obama to Take On Torture?(Barack Obama on coercive interrogation)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Michael Isikoff Despite the hopes of many human-rights advocates, the new Obama Justice Department is not likely to launch major new criminal probes of harsh interrogations and other alleged abuses by the Bush administration. But one idea that has currency among some top ...
The Flight That Wasn't.(North Korea missile parts transfer to Iran through India blocked)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Mark Hosenball and Christian Caryl Only weeks before dropping North Korea from an official U.S. blacklist of countries that support terrorism, the Bush administration apparently thwarted the transfer of missile parts (possibly including gyroscopes for guidance systems) ...
Katrina Kids: Sickest Ever.(Periscope; HEALTH)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Mary Carmichael Even before the storm, they were some of the country's neediest kids. Now, the children of Katrina who stayed longest in ramshackle government trailer parks in Baton Rouge are "the sickest I have ever seen in the U.S.," says Irwin Redlener, president of ...
Their Begging Bowl Is Made of Gold.(Mike Huckabee, Ashley Dupree, and Alan Mulally)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008 ... A weekly mathematical survey of dubious behavior that measures, on a scale of 1 to 100, just how low you can go. In his new campaign memoir, Mike Huckabee goes overboard taking shots at Republican pinata Mitt Romney. OK, so he spent a lot of money. Give it a rest, Huck. Score: 9 ...
A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash.(Periscope; MONEY)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Tony Dokoupil People nationwide may start hoarding their cash as recession fears grow. But in Riverwest--a progressive enclave of Milwaukee--residents have another answer to their money trouble: they'll print their own. The proposed River Currency would be used like cash ...
Cabinet A-Team Edition.(Periscope; CONVENTIONAL WISDOM WATCH)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008 ... Clinton at State, Geithner at Treasury, Gates stays at Defense, Holder A.G., Napolitano Homeland Sec., Richardson at Comm. Obama UP-Old: Leakless, disciplined, classy transition. New: Leaky, messy, still classy transition. Hillary UP-All hands on deck! The world is ...
Hollywood Grab-Bag Edition.(Periscope; A CW LOOK AT STARS)
Dec 01, 2008 ... ***** Correction: In the Dec. 1 issue, an item in the Conventional Wisdom Watch reported that actress Winona Ryder had been "rushed to a London hospital after OD'ing on tranquilizers during flight." In an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, Ryder's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, called the report ...
Bong Hits 4 Jesus Dude.(Periscope; CLOSURE)(Joseph Frederick )(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Samantha Henig News stories captivate us for a moment and then vanish. We revisit those stories to bring you the next chapter. Starting Point When the Olympic torch passed through Juneau, Alaska, in 2002, 18-year-old Joseph Frederick saw a chance ...
She's No Square Peg.(Periscope; WORTH YOUR TIME)(Katey Sagal in Sons of Anarchy)(Movie review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Joshua Alston The old conventional wisdom held that there were no substantive, red-meat roles for actresses of a certain age. Try telling that to Katey Sagal, 54, one of the many tough, gorgeous and, yes, older women holding the television airwaves in their manicured ...
Glee. Fury. Malaise. Oscar!(Periscope; MOVIES)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Sarah Ball Harvey Milk wouldn't be too proud of California voters right about now--but he might be glad to know that their doings have blessed his biopic with Oscar buzz aplenty. Since the passage of California's Proposition 8, banning gay marriage, ...
Alex Ross.(Periscope; A LIFE IN BOOKS)(Brief article)(Book review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Music critic for The New Yorker since 1996, Ross wrote his first book in 2007. "The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century" won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His picks: My Five Most Important Books ...
Get a Life, Doc, If You Dare.(Periscope; HEALTH MATTERS)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Mary Carmichael Residents are often too busy wiping the noses and taking the temperatures of other people's kids to do the same for their own. There's an e-mail making the rounds with a job description attached. If you apply, be warned: you will be burdened ...
The Science of Working Together.(Periscope; PAGE TURNER)(Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life)(Brief article)(Book review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Jeneen Interlandi Game theory--The mathematical study of human behavior in strategic situations--is normally the purview of CEOs and military leaders, who rely on its insights to vanquish opponents or outdo competitors. But those same insights can also be used to achieve ...
It's Not All Downhill.(Enterprise; TRENDS)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Linda Stern You've seen the commercials: hippie vans, long flowing hair, Woodstock music and rhetoric about "the generation that swore it would never grow old." As members of the postwar cohort head into their 60s and beyond, marketers are portraying them as free spirits ...
Don't Gamble Away Your Savings.(Enterprise; RECREATION)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Caitlin McDevitt Whether lured by cheap bus rides or $1.99 breakfast deals, seniors account for up to 80 percent of weekday casino business, according to Debra Hilgeman, marketing director of Boomtown Casino in Biloxi, Miss. "They're rarely high rollers, but they're high ...
How to Find Your Post-50 Job.(Enterprise; EMPLOYMENT)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Linda Stern Retirement is so overrated. Study after study shows that the current generation of 50somethings wants to keep working, and for the majority who are doing work requiring more brain than brawn, it won't hurt. "You're not mining coal; you can handle ...
Know How to Set Limits.(Enterprise; GRANDPARENTS)(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008 ... One of the joys of retiring is spending time with your grandchildren. But these relationships don't always come cheap. Matthew Tuttle, a certified financial planner and author of "Financial Secrets of My Wealthy Grandparents," sees a lot of older clients digging deep to help support (or ...
Don't Be Shy About Getting Hearing Help.(Enterprise; HEALTH)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Temma Ehrenfeld Many seniors think hearing aides are appropriate only for the very old: closer to a walker than glasses. But nothing makes a person seem older than zoning out and pretending you can hear when you can't. You may think you're getting along fine, ...
Senior Discounts Go Beyond The Multiplex.(Enterprise; THRIFT)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Linda Stern If you can force yourself to admit that you're a senior, you can cash in on discounts on everything from cell phones to ski trips. That doesn't sound so old, right? The oft-ridiculed senior-citizen discount is alive and well at most businesses you ...
A Fine Time to Take to the Seven Seas.(Enterprise; TRAVEL)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Caitlin McDevitt Many retirees want a vacation--not a "staycation"--even if their savings have sunk. These days, a cruise might be their best bet. When fuel costs spiked this year, cruise lines couldn't offer the deep discounts that usually keep their business brisk. But ...
When DNA is Not Destiny.(Sharon Begley; ON SCIENCE)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Sharon Begley Experiences can silence genes or activate them. Even shyness is like Silly Putty once life gets hold of it. "Personality must be accepted for what it is," Oscar Wilde counseled. "You mustn't mind that a poet is a drunk." We'll defer to Wilde on ...
No Small Task For Eric Holder.(Dahlia Lithwick; THE VERDICT)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The new attorney general will face tremendous pressure to go after those who authorized torture. The U.S. Justice Department faces an internal crisis in morale and a public crisis in credibility. And while every Justice Department pushes its political agenda alongside its lofty ...
What Michelle Means to Us.(Cover Story; POLITICS)(Michelle Obama )(Cover story)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Allison Samuels ***** Correction: In our Dec. 1 story "What Michelle Means to Us" we said that Michelle Obama would grace the March cover of Vogue. While Vogue has in fact been in discussions with her representatives about appearing on the magazine's cover, ...
Mamet Stage Direction.(David Mamet on American Buffalo and Speed-the-Flow)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Jeremy McCarter To speed the play, think poetry, not potty mouths. David Mamet writes plays and movies and TV shows about tough guys. When he came out as a conservative, he did so in the lefty Village Voice, which was a tough-guy thing to do. And he leaves no ...
When Left is Right.(the Rachel Maddow Show on Barack Obama)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Byline: Julia Baird Rachel Maddow always thought she was an outsider. How did she become a star? "Can you believe that sellout, Barack Obama?" says Rachel Maddow, looking around the room. "Let's hit him from the left!" It's 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 5, and the six-foot-tall ...
The Price of Loyalty.(Politics; THE BIG IDEA)(political appointments and loyalty)(Editorial)
Dec 08, 2008; ... Bush made personal allegiance a threshold test. The result was a surfeit of reliable hacks and outright incompetents. Critics of Hillary Clinton's possible appointment as Secretary of State have focused on the issue of whether she'll be faithful to her new boss. The senator, we ...
No God--And No Abortions.(Periscope; BELIEF WATCH)(pro-life atheists)(Editorial)
Dec 08, 2008; ... Byline: Lisa Miller Pro-life atheists insist that a human life has intrinsic value, even though they don't believe in God. Before the election I wrote a piece for NEWSWEEK.com about white evangelicals and abortion. In that piece, I predicted that conservative ...
Everybody Make Love--And War.(Periscope; THE BIG IDEA)(Sex and War)(Brief article)
Dec 08, 2008; ... Byline: Matthew Philips They are primal urges, sex and violence, but they seem like polar opposites. They define almost every species, but humans seem capable of keeping them apart. Or maybe not. In their new book, "Sex and War," research biologist Malcolm Potts and journalist ...
Rubin's Detail Deficit.(Business)(Robert Rubin)
Dec 08, 2008; ... Byline: Evan Thomas and Michael Hirsh; With Matthew Philips Obama's new team is heavy with Rubinistas, but nobody's perfect--even, it turns out, Rubin. Robert Rubin has always been known for his calm steadiness--perfect, one might say, for the age of "No-Drama ...
And Then There Was One.(Business)
Dec 08, 2008; ... Byline: Keith Naughton; With Caitlin McDevitt and Temma Ehrenfeld Distilling the Big Three into a single player could save Detroit. So this is how it ends for Detroit? After more than a century of putting the world on wheels, the American auto industry collapses amid ...
Crashes Needn't Be Fatal.(Daniel Lyons; TECHTONIC SHIFTS)
Dec 08, 2008; ... Byline: Daniel Lyons Backing up data is a pain in the neck. The only way to make people do it is to automate the process. Mozy does that. Many of us have suffered a data-destroying computer crash. But some stories are better than others. Josh Diulio, a marketing exec ...
Luxury Shame.(Business; CONSUMERS)
Dec 08, 2008; ... Byline: Johnnie L. Roberts Why even the very rich are cutting back on conspicuous consumption. Multimillionaire Michael Hirtenstein used to flaunt his acquisitions of opulent real estate. "I collect homes because I enjoy it," he once told DansHamptons.com about his ...
Guided by a Legendary President.(Letter to the editor)
Dec 08, 2008 ... 'Obama's Lincoln': Readers were divided over our early comparison between Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln. "It's arguable that Obama shares Lincoln's gifts of oratorical eloquence, compassion and political inclusiveness," wrote one. Another thought we jumped the gun: "Isn't it a tad too ...
The Editor's Desk.(Editorial)
Dec 08, 2008; ... Byline: Jon Meacham More than a decade ago, when Fareed Zakaria was still managing editor of Foreign Affairs and only an occasional contributor to our pages, he wrote an essay for us arguing that the Clinton administration was in danger of conducting "foreign policy by ...