Prometheus 6

The Atlantic has online access to its articles for its subscribers. I am not among their number because I don't want every issue. But sometimes...

The New Nixon
It'll be George W. Bush, if he doesn't change his economic policies soon
by Jonathan Rauch

If you are worried about the federal deficit (and you should be), ask yourself which would do more to improve the country's finances—President Bush's latest budget or a pastrami sandwich. The administration made much of the fact that the budget Bush proposed in February was his tightest yet and was projected to reduce the deficit by half, to $207 billion, in 2010. What the administration did not make much of — you had to look deep in the fine print — is that the deficit would actually decline a bit more between now and 2010 if the Bush plan were not enacted and existing laws were just left alone.

In other words, go with the pastrami. It is fiscally sounder, plus it's good with mustard and a dill pickle.

I do have this issue. I bought it for Countdown to a Meltdown, a cute piece of fiction that ties together all the ominous portents that we see and aren't actually doing a damn thing about. It's like Michael Crichton's science fiction where the science is economics. The above was just a bonus.