Smart Reads December 3, 2012

December 3, 2012 3:22 pm by Amie Tsang

The US may be having its Thelma and Louise moment, but the even bigger issue that the country will have to face in 2013 is “when will it be governed sensibly again?” Edward Luce takes a look at the deteriorating quality of US governance.
Bruce Bartlett argues that the Republicans need to start questioning their own strategy because their permanent decline “now seems inevitable.”
In Tunisia, frustration over the economy is returning — since Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted, the unemployment rate has risen from 13 per cent to 18 per cent. “Nothing has changed since the revolution,” according to one Tunisian. “If anything there are more problems…”
Meanwhile in France, a “floating generation” of educated and unemployed young people are going from one short-term job to another, unable to find permanent jobs; they have little chance of becoming “the taxpaying, property-owning French ideal that seemed the norm for decades.”
The New York Times has a series examining how businesses affect local economies, putting the spotlight on the relationships between corporations and governments — just as British MPs are putting pressure on companies that minimise their tax bills.
The support from representatives of 95 per cent of the world’s population for Palestine’s bid for enhanced status should be a sign that the US can no longer enjoy a monopoly on the peace process, argues John Whitbeck.

The World