December 2, 2010, 7:34 pm
Investment Banking
Managing Risk for JPMorgan, and Blindness
By JULIA WERDIGIER
Andrew Testa for The New York Times
Ashish Goyal at JPMorgan Chase in London. His computers can read information to him rapidly through a headset.LONDON — As a trader at JPMorganChase in London, Ashish Goyal helps manage billions of dollars of the bank’s exposure to risks like foreign exchange fluctuations. In his spare time, he takes tango lessons, plays cricket and goes clubbing with friends. Mr. Goyal is also blind.
Watching him in the middle of the trading floor as he switches back and forth from computer screens, his blindness is not apparent at all. But to check his e-mail, read research reports and look at presentations, Mr. Goyal uses a screen-reading software whose speed is so high that it sounds like gibberish to the untrained ear. When he needs to read graphs, which the software cannot do, Mr. Goyal goes through the data and tries to imagine the graph in his head.
On his desk, two computer screens show the usual flashing Bloomberg messages and spreadsheets of constantly changing numbers. Two keyboards are linked to headsets through which the information and figures are read out to him at rapid speeds. The same technology reads out text messages he receives on his cellphone.
“My colleagues already complained that they can’t hear my phone speak, as it is too fast,” Mr. Goyal said jokingly. “I turn around and say, ‘Well, I can’t read your text messages, so it’s only fair.’ ”
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33 Comments.Tolga Uzuner, executive director of JPMorgan’s chief investment office and Mr. Goyal’s boss, said he hired the 30-year-old Wharton School graduate because he was one of only a few candidates he interviewed who knew about Asian interest rates, had excellent risk management skills and knowledge of foreign exchange.
Vladimir Aleksic, who now works with Mr. Goyal, said, “We walked out of the interview room and just said wow.” Many people on the team analyze historical data and use comparisons to make decisions about risks, Mr. Aleksic said, but “Ashish looks at where things are now and just follows the news flow. He’s not blinded by the graphs.”
But as someone who can make out only light and shadows, Mr. Goyal also knows his limits. “I told people, ‘You can put me on the spot trading desk, but I’d be too slow,’ ” he said. “The challenges are to realize where I can add value and where I don’t. You need to find your niche.”
Mr. Goyal says he always wanted to work in financial markets. But despite a résumé that includes a top business degree from a university in India, another from the Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania and a three-year stint at an Indian subsidiary of ING bank, finding people who would hire him was not easy.
After earning his first business degree, Mr. Goyal said he had made the short list of candidates for jobs at several firms, but once they realized he was blind he was turned away. When it was ING’s turn, Mr. Goyal recalled, he was so frustrated that he just blurted: “I’m blind. Do you still want to talk to me or not?”
“They asked whether I could do the job. I said I think I can, and I was hired,” Mr. Goyal said.
Years later, when he applied to Wharton with the goal of getting a job in New York or London, Mr. Goyal said, the university’s director of admissions signed off on his application with the words: “I have never seen a blind trader on Wall Street. I can’t guarantee you’ll get a job but you’ll definitely be better off with a Wharton degree.”
Still, even after Wharton, many Wall Street firms rejected his applications because they could not find anybody else on Wall Street using the same screen-reading software. JPMorgan was the only bank to offer him a summer internship, which led to an offer of a permanent position.
Mr. Goyal was not born blind. Growing up in Mumbai, Mr. Goyal said he had a normal, happy childhood. But when he was about nine years old, he noticed that he could not immediately recognize some people and could not see the lines in his notebooks at school. One night he walked into a ditch, later he crashed his bicycle, and then he started to miss the ball during his tennis lessons.
Mr. Goyal was told he had retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic condition that damages the retina, and would gradually become blind. By the time Mr. Goyal was 22, he had completely lost his eyesight.
“The worst thing was I didn’t know what was happening and what to do about it,” Mr. Goyal said. While other people his age were starting to date, he said, “I was struggling to deal with a disability. What was I to tell people? ‘Sometimes I can see you, sometimes not?’ ”
The loss of his eyesight left Mr. Goyal “scared and confused” and with fewer friends, he said. “I was ready to just give up and not take my final exam and just go and work for my dad,” a real estate developer, Mr. Goyal said. But his mother forced him to sit for the exam, and to his surprise he not only passed but received good grades.
Today, Mr. Goyal said he was proud that he did not need help from others on a daily basis and he had again become active in sports, as he was as a child. Last year, his team won a cricket tournament for the blind, which is played with a slightly bigger ball that has sound.
Despite his achievements, which this year also included a national award from India for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Goyal speaks modestly of himself.
“One challenge is that I don’t become a benchmark for other people,” he said. “I’ve done all these things but yes, it’s been a struggle. Not everyone is as fortunate to have the support of friends and family and it wouldn’t be fair. I’m mediocre at many things.”
03/12 China to Tighten Monetary Policy
By EDWARD WONG
Published: December 3, 2010
BEIJING — China will tighten its monetary policy next year, the country’s leaders said Friday, a sign that they are increasingly concerned about inflation and an overheated economy.
Enlarge This Image
Jason Lee/Reuters
A worker walks past apartments under construction in Beijing. The real estate market in China has been booming. Stimulus money and loose bank lending have spurred development.
Enlarge This Image
Reuters
Dollar bills and the renminbi, China’s currency. Beijing has said it will gradually increase the flexibility of its exchange rate.
The move, announced in an article by Xinhua, China’s official news agency, comes as other nations, including the United States, continue to grapple with a global recession.
Xinhua reported that the Politburo, the elite team led by nine members at the top of the Communist Party hierarchy, had decided that China’s monetary policy should shift “from relatively loose to prudent next year.” The article also said China “will continue its proactive fiscal policy,” meaning that investment spending would not be severely curbed.
China’s economy has continued to grow rapidly, bolstered in part by an enormous government stimulus package and liberal lending by state banks after the global financial crisis began in late 2008. The move to rein in liquidity and bank lending, presumably through interest rate increases and other means, indicates that Chinese leaders feel confident enough in prospects for future growth that they can afford to cool down the economy.
The Xinhua article did not discuss the implications of a tighter monetary policy for the value of the renminbi. But one reason China has kept its monetary policy loose for the last several years has been to issue more renminbi and buy United States dollars.
That currency market intervention has kept the renminbi weak and has made Chinese exports more competitive in foreign markets while making foreign goods more expensive in China. The United States, Europe and some developing countries have become increasingly concerned; they say the relative weakness of the renminbi has caused the transfer of jobs and economic growth to China. And the Obama administration in particular has been putting pressure on China to let the renminbi appreciate.
Tightening the money supply might mean China’s central bank would buy fewer dollars and might strengthen the renminbi against the dollar and other major currencies — the effect critics of China’s monetary policy have been seeking. But analysts do not expect the shift in policy to lead to significant currency appreciation.
The government reported that the consumer price index, an indicator of inflation, rose 4.4 percent in October from the same month in 2009. The increase was the largest in 25 months and higher than the rate policy makers in Beijing are comfortable with. The government wants the average throughout all of 2010 to be no higher than 3 percent; in May, the index nudged up to 3.1 percent over May 2009 and has been gradually rising since.
Some analysts say the government will raise interest rates throughout 2011 to curb spending.
In October, the government slightly raised a benchmark lending rate, apparently to slow real estate speculation. The property market in China has been booming. Rising property prices, along with the government stimulus money and loose bank lending, have spurred new developments across the country, from the windswept plains of Inner Mongolia to the tropical southern island of Hainan. Some analysts say this has resulted in a dangerous bubble in the real estate market, while others argue that the capacity will be put to good use.
A record $560 billion of residential property was sold in 2009, an increase of 80 percent over 2008, according to government statistics.
Some officials in the central government have indicated they recognize there is a risk to loose bank lending and presumably want to slow it. Victor C. Shih, an associate professor at Northwestern University, has estimated that state banks have lent $1.6 trillion to companies owned by local governments, and that a significant portion of that is likely to pile up as bad loans, posing a risk to state banks.
Low wages have helped to hold down inflation. But those wages, coupled with the hot property market, mean that migrant workers from the interior of China are less tolerant of poor work conditions on the coasts, where many of China’s export manufacturing factories are located. Many workers are now choosing to stay closer to home in the interior provinces.
China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, reported on Monday that two large manufacturing hubs, the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, are experiencing severe worker shortages. The Pearl River Delta could be short by as many as 900,000 workers, the newspaper reported, citing a recent survey by the human resources department of Guangdong Province.
Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2010, on page B3 of the New York edition.
Published: December 3, 2010
BEIJING — China will tighten its monetary policy next year, the country’s leaders said Friday, a sign that they are increasingly concerned about inflation and an overheated economy.
Enlarge This Image
Jason Lee/Reuters
A worker walks past apartments under construction in Beijing. The real estate market in China has been booming. Stimulus money and loose bank lending have spurred development.
Enlarge This Image
Reuters
Dollar bills and the renminbi, China’s currency. Beijing has said it will gradually increase the flexibility of its exchange rate.
The move, announced in an article by Xinhua, China’s official news agency, comes as other nations, including the United States, continue to grapple with a global recession.
Xinhua reported that the Politburo, the elite team led by nine members at the top of the Communist Party hierarchy, had decided that China’s monetary policy should shift “from relatively loose to prudent next year.” The article also said China “will continue its proactive fiscal policy,” meaning that investment spending would not be severely curbed.
China’s economy has continued to grow rapidly, bolstered in part by an enormous government stimulus package and liberal lending by state banks after the global financial crisis began in late 2008. The move to rein in liquidity and bank lending, presumably through interest rate increases and other means, indicates that Chinese leaders feel confident enough in prospects for future growth that they can afford to cool down the economy.
The Xinhua article did not discuss the implications of a tighter monetary policy for the value of the renminbi. But one reason China has kept its monetary policy loose for the last several years has been to issue more renminbi and buy United States dollars.
That currency market intervention has kept the renminbi weak and has made Chinese exports more competitive in foreign markets while making foreign goods more expensive in China. The United States, Europe and some developing countries have become increasingly concerned; they say the relative weakness of the renminbi has caused the transfer of jobs and economic growth to China. And the Obama administration in particular has been putting pressure on China to let the renminbi appreciate.
Tightening the money supply might mean China’s central bank would buy fewer dollars and might strengthen the renminbi against the dollar and other major currencies — the effect critics of China’s monetary policy have been seeking. But analysts do not expect the shift in policy to lead to significant currency appreciation.
The government reported that the consumer price index, an indicator of inflation, rose 4.4 percent in October from the same month in 2009. The increase was the largest in 25 months and higher than the rate policy makers in Beijing are comfortable with. The government wants the average throughout all of 2010 to be no higher than 3 percent; in May, the index nudged up to 3.1 percent over May 2009 and has been gradually rising since.
Some analysts say the government will raise interest rates throughout 2011 to curb spending.
In October, the government slightly raised a benchmark lending rate, apparently to slow real estate speculation. The property market in China has been booming. Rising property prices, along with the government stimulus money and loose bank lending, have spurred new developments across the country, from the windswept plains of Inner Mongolia to the tropical southern island of Hainan. Some analysts say this has resulted in a dangerous bubble in the real estate market, while others argue that the capacity will be put to good use.
A record $560 billion of residential property was sold in 2009, an increase of 80 percent over 2008, according to government statistics.
Some officials in the central government have indicated they recognize there is a risk to loose bank lending and presumably want to slow it. Victor C. Shih, an associate professor at Northwestern University, has estimated that state banks have lent $1.6 trillion to companies owned by local governments, and that a significant portion of that is likely to pile up as bad loans, posing a risk to state banks.
Low wages have helped to hold down inflation. But those wages, coupled with the hot property market, mean that migrant workers from the interior of China are less tolerant of poor work conditions on the coasts, where many of China’s export manufacturing factories are located. Many workers are now choosing to stay closer to home in the interior provinces.
China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, reported on Monday that two large manufacturing hubs, the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, are experiencing severe worker shortages. The Pearl River Delta could be short by as many as 900,000 workers, the newspaper reported, citing a recent survey by the human resources department of Guangdong Province.
Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2010, on page B3 of the New York edition.
03/12 Obama in Unannounced Afghan Visit
Obama in Unannounced Afghan Visit
Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Obama greeted troops at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan with Gen. David H. Petraeus, right, on Friday.
By PETER BAKER
Published: December 3, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama swept into a dark and windy Afghanistan on Friday for a surprise holiday season visit with troops as the nine-year American-led war heads into a new phase intended to finally begin transferring control of the country to Afghan forces.
Related
Text: Obama’s Remarks at Bagram Air Force Base (December 4, 2010)
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.Wrapped in a tight cocoon of secrecy and security, Mr. Obama landed at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, on a pitch-black evening and told thousands of American service members who greeted him that they had begun to turn the tide in a war that has frustrated commanders and soldiers alike for nearly a decade.
But Afghanistan confounded the president’s plans, just as it has foreign forces over the centuries. Its notoriously gusty winds whipped around him at 45 m.p.h. and dust clouds limited visibility, grounding the helicopter that was to take him to Kabul to meet with President Hamid Karzai.
A backup plan to confer via video teleconference then was scrapped due to technical problems. The two leaders talked by telephone for 15 minutes, never laying eyes on each other, even though they were just 35 miles apart.
White House officials played down the glitches, saying Mr. Obama’s main mission during his three-and-a-half-hour stay was to show support for the troops heading into another holiday season far from home. The president had met with Mr. Karzai just two weeks ago at a NATO meeting in Lisbon, where they set forth a plan to gradually start turning over the lead role in the war to Afghan forces next year, with the aim of ending the foreign combat mission by 2014.
“Thanks to your service, we are making important progress,” Mr. Obama, wearing a bomber jacket and dark slacks, told more than 3,800 troops at Bagram. “We said we were going to break the Taliban’s momentum, and that’s what you’re doing. You’re going on the offense, tired of playing defense, targeting their leaders, pushing them out of their strongholds.
“Today,” he continued, “we can be proud that there are fewer areas under Taliban control and more Afghans have a chance to build a more hopeful future.”
He added, “Because of the service of the men and women of the United States military, because of the progress you’re making, we look forward to a new phase next year, the beginning of a transition to Afghan responsibility.”
The president’s remarks offered a more positive assessment of the situation on the ground than he has in some time, influenced perhaps by the optimism expressed in recent weeks by his commanding general, Gen. David H. Petraeus. American military forces have tripled, to 100,000, on Mr. Obama’s watch, and he has vowed to begin reducing the number of troops next July.
But others in Washington and Kabul have been more skeptical of the claims of progress, noting the unabated and pervasive corruption of Mr. Karzai’s government, the resilience of the insurgency despite escalated attacks and the debacle of recent peace talks that turned out to be held not with a senior Taliban leader but an impostor.
Mr. Obama, too, dwelled on the continuing cost of the war, noting the platoon he met that had lost six members, the five Purple Hearts he awarded in the base hospital and the Medal of Honor he presented recently to an American soldier at the White House.
The atmosphere appeared more subdued than in past presidential visits, as Mr. Obama noted that “many of you have stood before the solemn battle cross, display of boots, a rifle, a helmet, and said goodbye to a fallen comrade.”
Mr. Obama’s visit came at a pivotal moment in the war on both sides. In Washington, the administration is completing a review of the surge and counterinsurgency strategy that the president approved a year ago, although officials played down its import. “I don’t think you’ll see any immediate adjustments,” Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, the president’s top Afghan policy adviser, told reporters on Air Force One.
In Kabul, an election held on Sept. 18 has yet to result in a sitting Parliament, as Mr. Karzai has neither endorsed nor condemned its outcome. And State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made public on Friday laid bare the unvarnished and dubious view of American diplomats toward Mr. Karzai and his government. The cables questioned whether Mr. Karzai will ever be “a responsible partner” and depicted him as “erratic” and “indecisive and unprepared.”
But unlike his last trip to Afghanistan in March, when Mr. Obama pressed Mr. Karzai about corruption and the frictions were on public display, the president this time was intent on working around the divisions, and aides said the cables did not come up in the call between the presidents.
As has become customary under both Mr. Obama and President George W. Bush, the trip to Afghanistan was carried out in clandestine fashion. Mr. Obama slipped out of the White House without notice on Thursday night after presiding over a Hanukkah celebration, accompanied only by his personal aide, Reggie Love, Secret Service agents and members of his support staff.
At Andrews Air Force Base, he was joined by General Lute; his national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and other top aides. Air Force One took off in secret at 10 p.m. A small pool of journalists was brought along on condition that they not report on the trip until the president landed in Afghanistan.
Many White House officials, and most of the Afghan government, were not informed. The president’s advance schedule for Friday listed him meeting with advisers in the Oval Office and then making a public statement on the latest unemployment report, with the schedule reporting that “the location of the statement is T.B.D.,” or to be determined. Aides said Mr. Karzai’s government was informed in the last few days.
Mr. Obama’s trip was the third time he had left the United States in the month since his party absorbed major losses in midterm elections. He left Washington at a very busy moment, as he struggles with Congress over a host of issues like tax cuts, deficit spending, arms control, gays in the military and immigration.
He landed just after 8:30 p.m. Afghan time and took off from Bagram shortly after midnight. He spent time with General Petraeus and Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry in addition to visiting wounded soldiers. Aides said it was a useful visit even without a meeting with Mr. Karzai.
“Obviously it would be nice to be able to share a meal together, but at the same time they were able to be face-to-face less than two weeks ago,” Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, told reporters traveling with the president. “I think President Karzai understood the purpose of this was really for the president to spend time with the troops.”
Alissa J. Rubin contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 3, 2010
A picture caption with an earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Gen. David H. Petraeus as Petreaus.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2010, on page A4 of the New York edition.
Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Obama greeted troops at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan with Gen. David H. Petraeus, right, on Friday.
By PETER BAKER
Published: December 3, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama swept into a dark and windy Afghanistan on Friday for a surprise holiday season visit with troops as the nine-year American-led war heads into a new phase intended to finally begin transferring control of the country to Afghan forces.
Related
Text: Obama’s Remarks at Bagram Air Force Base (December 4, 2010)
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The latest on President Obama, the new Congress and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.
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.Wrapped in a tight cocoon of secrecy and security, Mr. Obama landed at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, on a pitch-black evening and told thousands of American service members who greeted him that they had begun to turn the tide in a war that has frustrated commanders and soldiers alike for nearly a decade.
But Afghanistan confounded the president’s plans, just as it has foreign forces over the centuries. Its notoriously gusty winds whipped around him at 45 m.p.h. and dust clouds limited visibility, grounding the helicopter that was to take him to Kabul to meet with President Hamid Karzai.
A backup plan to confer via video teleconference then was scrapped due to technical problems. The two leaders talked by telephone for 15 minutes, never laying eyes on each other, even though they were just 35 miles apart.
White House officials played down the glitches, saying Mr. Obama’s main mission during his three-and-a-half-hour stay was to show support for the troops heading into another holiday season far from home. The president had met with Mr. Karzai just two weeks ago at a NATO meeting in Lisbon, where they set forth a plan to gradually start turning over the lead role in the war to Afghan forces next year, with the aim of ending the foreign combat mission by 2014.
“Thanks to your service, we are making important progress,” Mr. Obama, wearing a bomber jacket and dark slacks, told more than 3,800 troops at Bagram. “We said we were going to break the Taliban’s momentum, and that’s what you’re doing. You’re going on the offense, tired of playing defense, targeting their leaders, pushing them out of their strongholds.
“Today,” he continued, “we can be proud that there are fewer areas under Taliban control and more Afghans have a chance to build a more hopeful future.”
He added, “Because of the service of the men and women of the United States military, because of the progress you’re making, we look forward to a new phase next year, the beginning of a transition to Afghan responsibility.”
The president’s remarks offered a more positive assessment of the situation on the ground than he has in some time, influenced perhaps by the optimism expressed in recent weeks by his commanding general, Gen. David H. Petraeus. American military forces have tripled, to 100,000, on Mr. Obama’s watch, and he has vowed to begin reducing the number of troops next July.
But others in Washington and Kabul have been more skeptical of the claims of progress, noting the unabated and pervasive corruption of Mr. Karzai’s government, the resilience of the insurgency despite escalated attacks and the debacle of recent peace talks that turned out to be held not with a senior Taliban leader but an impostor.
Mr. Obama, too, dwelled on the continuing cost of the war, noting the platoon he met that had lost six members, the five Purple Hearts he awarded in the base hospital and the Medal of Honor he presented recently to an American soldier at the White House.
The atmosphere appeared more subdued than in past presidential visits, as Mr. Obama noted that “many of you have stood before the solemn battle cross, display of boots, a rifle, a helmet, and said goodbye to a fallen comrade.”
Mr. Obama’s visit came at a pivotal moment in the war on both sides. In Washington, the administration is completing a review of the surge and counterinsurgency strategy that the president approved a year ago, although officials played down its import. “I don’t think you’ll see any immediate adjustments,” Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, the president’s top Afghan policy adviser, told reporters on Air Force One.
In Kabul, an election held on Sept. 18 has yet to result in a sitting Parliament, as Mr. Karzai has neither endorsed nor condemned its outcome. And State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made public on Friday laid bare the unvarnished and dubious view of American diplomats toward Mr. Karzai and his government. The cables questioned whether Mr. Karzai will ever be “a responsible partner” and depicted him as “erratic” and “indecisive and unprepared.”
But unlike his last trip to Afghanistan in March, when Mr. Obama pressed Mr. Karzai about corruption and the frictions were on public display, the president this time was intent on working around the divisions, and aides said the cables did not come up in the call between the presidents.
As has become customary under both Mr. Obama and President George W. Bush, the trip to Afghanistan was carried out in clandestine fashion. Mr. Obama slipped out of the White House without notice on Thursday night after presiding over a Hanukkah celebration, accompanied only by his personal aide, Reggie Love, Secret Service agents and members of his support staff.
At Andrews Air Force Base, he was joined by General Lute; his national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and other top aides. Air Force One took off in secret at 10 p.m. A small pool of journalists was brought along on condition that they not report on the trip until the president landed in Afghanistan.
Many White House officials, and most of the Afghan government, were not informed. The president’s advance schedule for Friday listed him meeting with advisers in the Oval Office and then making a public statement on the latest unemployment report, with the schedule reporting that “the location of the statement is T.B.D.,” or to be determined. Aides said Mr. Karzai’s government was informed in the last few days.
Mr. Obama’s trip was the third time he had left the United States in the month since his party absorbed major losses in midterm elections. He left Washington at a very busy moment, as he struggles with Congress over a host of issues like tax cuts, deficit spending, arms control, gays in the military and immigration.
He landed just after 8:30 p.m. Afghan time and took off from Bagram shortly after midnight. He spent time with General Petraeus and Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry in addition to visiting wounded soldiers. Aides said it was a useful visit even without a meeting with Mr. Karzai.
“Obviously it would be nice to be able to share a meal together, but at the same time they were able to be face-to-face less than two weeks ago,” Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, told reporters traveling with the president. “I think President Karzai understood the purpose of this was really for the president to spend time with the troops.”
Alissa J. Rubin contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 3, 2010
A picture caption with an earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Gen. David H. Petraeus as Petreaus.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2010, on page A4 of the New York edition.
03/12 In a First for Obama, Nine Pardons Are Granted
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: December 3, 2010
WASHINGTON — For the first time since taking office nearly two years ago, President Obama exercised his clemency powers on Friday by granting pardons to nine people.
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.For the most part, the cases were for small-scale offenses committed many years ago. Six of the nine people had served only probation for their convictions.
“The president was moved by the strength of the applicants’ postconviction efforts at atonement, as well as their superior citizenship and individual achievements in the years since their convictions,” said Reid Cherlin, a White House spokesman.
All nine had applied for pardons through the normal review process at the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, which had recommended that the president grant clemency in each case, the department said.
By making his first clemency grants 682 days into his presidency, Mr. Obama narrowly avoided surpassing former President George W. Bush’s record for the longest wait for a presidential pardon, according to data compiled by P. S. Ruckman Jr., a political science professor at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., and the editor of the Pardon Power blog. Mr. Bush issued his first set of pardons in late December of his second year as president.
Margaret Colgate Love, a former United States pardon attorney who now represents clemency seekers, said she was pleased the wait was over.
“I’m very glad he’s gotten started, and I hope that he will look seriously at the hundreds of cases that are awaiting his consideration,” she said.
Samuel T. Morison, a former staff attorney in the pardon office who left recently after 13 years, said the small-scale nature of the first round of grants suggested that the Obama administration would continue the “conservative” approach under Mr. Bush.
“While I’m sure the grantees are all grateful, as they should be, this reflects the department’s continuing program to reserve pardon only for old and minor offenses, as they did in the Bush administration, as opposed to anyone who can demonstrate genuine rehabilitation and/or need for relief,” Mr. Morison said.
Four cases involved cocaine-related offenses: Timothy James Gallagher of Navasota, Tex., who was sentenced to three years’ probation in 1982; Roxane Kay Hettinger of Powder Springs, Ga., who was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years’ probation in 1986; Edgar Leopold Kranz Jr. of Minot, N.D., who served 24 months in a military brig following a court-martial in 1994; and Floretta Leavy of Rockford, Ill., who was sentenced in 1984 to a year and a day in prison and three years on special parole.
None of the others pardoned Friday served any time for their convictions, according to a White House release.
They were: James Bernard Banks of Liberty, Utah, who was sentenced to two years’ probation in 1972 for illegal possession of government property; Russell James Dixon of Clayton, Ga., who received two years’ probation for a felony liquor law violation in 1960; Laurens Dorsey of Syracuse, N.Y., who was sentenced to five years’ probation and restitution of $71,000 for making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration in 1998; Ronald Lee Foster of Beaver Falls, Pa., who was sentenced to a year of probation and a $20 fine for mutilating coins in 1963; and Scoey Lathaniel Morris of Crosby, Tex., who was sentenced to three years’ probation and restitution of $1,200 for passing counterfeit bills in 1999.
In October, Mr. Obama denied 605 petitions for a commuted sentence and 71 requests for a pardon. Late last month, he denied 552 commutation petitions and 60 pardon requests.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2010, on page A12 of the New York edition.
Published: December 3, 2010
WASHINGTON — For the first time since taking office nearly two years ago, President Obama exercised his clemency powers on Friday by granting pardons to nine people.
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.For the most part, the cases were for small-scale offenses committed many years ago. Six of the nine people had served only probation for their convictions.
“The president was moved by the strength of the applicants’ postconviction efforts at atonement, as well as their superior citizenship and individual achievements in the years since their convictions,” said Reid Cherlin, a White House spokesman.
All nine had applied for pardons through the normal review process at the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, which had recommended that the president grant clemency in each case, the department said.
By making his first clemency grants 682 days into his presidency, Mr. Obama narrowly avoided surpassing former President George W. Bush’s record for the longest wait for a presidential pardon, according to data compiled by P. S. Ruckman Jr., a political science professor at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., and the editor of the Pardon Power blog. Mr. Bush issued his first set of pardons in late December of his second year as president.
Margaret Colgate Love, a former United States pardon attorney who now represents clemency seekers, said she was pleased the wait was over.
“I’m very glad he’s gotten started, and I hope that he will look seriously at the hundreds of cases that are awaiting his consideration,” she said.
Samuel T. Morison, a former staff attorney in the pardon office who left recently after 13 years, said the small-scale nature of the first round of grants suggested that the Obama administration would continue the “conservative” approach under Mr. Bush.
“While I’m sure the grantees are all grateful, as they should be, this reflects the department’s continuing program to reserve pardon only for old and minor offenses, as they did in the Bush administration, as opposed to anyone who can demonstrate genuine rehabilitation and/or need for relief,” Mr. Morison said.
Four cases involved cocaine-related offenses: Timothy James Gallagher of Navasota, Tex., who was sentenced to three years’ probation in 1982; Roxane Kay Hettinger of Powder Springs, Ga., who was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years’ probation in 1986; Edgar Leopold Kranz Jr. of Minot, N.D., who served 24 months in a military brig following a court-martial in 1994; and Floretta Leavy of Rockford, Ill., who was sentenced in 1984 to a year and a day in prison and three years on special parole.
None of the others pardoned Friday served any time for their convictions, according to a White House release.
They were: James Bernard Banks of Liberty, Utah, who was sentenced to two years’ probation in 1972 for illegal possession of government property; Russell James Dixon of Clayton, Ga., who received two years’ probation for a felony liquor law violation in 1960; Laurens Dorsey of Syracuse, N.Y., who was sentenced to five years’ probation and restitution of $71,000 for making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration in 1998; Ronald Lee Foster of Beaver Falls, Pa., who was sentenced to a year of probation and a $20 fine for mutilating coins in 1963; and Scoey Lathaniel Morris of Crosby, Tex., who was sentenced to three years’ probation and restitution of $1,200 for passing counterfeit bills in 1999.
In October, Mr. Obama denied 605 petitions for a commuted sentence and 71 requests for a pardon. Late last month, he denied 552 commutation petitions and 60 pardon requests.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2010, on page A12 of the New York edition.
02/12 Unemployed, and Likely to Stay That Way
The New Poor
Unemployed, and Likely to Stay That Way
Benjamin Norman for The New York Times
Tim Smyth, 51, a New York television producer, has been unable to find work since 2008, despite having two decades of experience.
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
Published: December 2, 2010
The longer people stay out of work, the more trouble they have finding new work.
The New Poor
Out of the Running
Articles in this series are examining the struggle to recover from the widespread strains of the Great Recession.
Previous Articles in the Series »
.Multimedia
Graphic Tougher Times for the Unemployed
.Enlarge This Image
Gregory Bull/Associated Press
Waiting in line to register at a career fair in San Diego. Employers sometimes worry that prolonged joblessness undermines skills.
Readers' Comments
"Being 60, I can tell you few people will consider me more than just a passing glance when they see the number of years I have on me vs. the number of years remaining."
jbeeler, Jacksonville, FL
Read Full Comment »
That is a fact of life that much of Europe, with its underclass of permanently idle workers, knows all too well. But it is a lesson that the United States seems to be just learning.
This country has some of the highest levels of long-term unemployment — out of work longer than six months — it has ever recorded. Meanwhile, job growth has been, and looks to remain, disappointingly slow, indicating that those out of work for a while are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Even if the government report on Friday shows the expected improvement in hiring by business, it will not be enough to make a real dent in those totals.
So the legions of long-term unemployed will probably be idle for significantly longer than their counterparts in past recessions, reducing their chances of eventually finding a job even when the economy becomes more robust.
“I am so worried somebody will look at me and say, ‘Oh, he’s probably lost his edge,’ ” said Tim Smyth, 51, a New York television producer who has been unable to find work since 2008, despite having two decades of experience at places like Nickelodeon and the Food Network. “I mean, I know it’s not true, but I’m afraid I might say the same thing if I were interviewing someone I didn’t know very well who’s been out of work this long.”
Mr. Smyth’s anxieties are not unfounded. New data from the Labor Department, provided to The New York Times, shows that people out of work fewer than five weeks are more than three times as likely to find a job in the coming month than people who have been out of work for over a year, with a re-employment rate of 30.7 percent versus 8.7 percent, respectively.
Likewise, previous economic studies, many based on Europe’s job market struggles, have shown that people who become disconnected from the work force have more trouble getting hired, probably because of some combination of stigma, discouragement and deterioration of their skills.
This is one of the biggest challenges facing policy makers in the United States as they seek to address unemployment. Its underlying tenet — that time exacerbates the problem — means that the longer Congress squabbles about how to increase job growth, the more intractable the situation becomes. This, in turn, means Washington would need to pursue more aggressive (and, perversely, more politically difficult) job-creating policies in order to succeed. Even reaching an agreement over whether to extend benefits yet again has proved contentious.
Several factors lead to this downward spiral of the unemployed.
In some cases, the long-term unemployed were poor performers in their previous positions and among the first to be terminated when the recession began. These people are weak job candidates with less impressive résumés and references.
In other instances, those who lost jobs may have been good workers but were laid off from occupations or industries that are in permanent decline, like manufacturing.
But economists have tried to control for these selection issues, and studies comparing the fates of similar workers have also shown that the experience of unemployment itself damages job prospects.
If jobless workers had been in sales, for instance, their customers might have moved on. Or perhaps the list of contacts they could turn to for leads is obsolete. Mr. Smyth, for example, says that so many of his former co-workers have been displaced that he is no longer sure whom to call on about openings.
In particularly dynamic industries, like software engineering, unemployed workers might also miss out on new developments and fail to develop the skills required.
Still, this explanation probably applies to only a small slice of the country’s 6.2 million long-term unemployed.
“I can’t imagine very many occupations and industries are of the type that if you’re out for nine months, the world passes you by,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research organization. “I think this erosion-of-skills idea is way overplayed. It’s probably much more about marketability.”
Many unemployed workers fret about how to explain the yawning gaps on their résumés. Some are calling themselves independent “consultants” or “entrepreneurs.”
1 2 Next Page »
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 4, 2010
An article on Friday about the job prospects of the long-term unemployed referred incompletely to the background of Jay Goltz, who was quoted offering the perspective of an employer. Besides owning five small businesses in Chicago, he also writes the Thinking Entrepreneur posts for The Times’s You’re the Boss blog.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 3, 2010, on page B1 of the New York edition.
Unemployed, and Likely to Stay That Way
Benjamin Norman for The New York Times
Tim Smyth, 51, a New York television producer, has been unable to find work since 2008, despite having two decades of experience.
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
Published: December 2, 2010
The longer people stay out of work, the more trouble they have finding new work.
The New Poor
Out of the Running
Articles in this series are examining the struggle to recover from the widespread strains of the Great Recession.
Previous Articles in the Series »
.Multimedia
Graphic Tougher Times for the Unemployed
.Enlarge This Image
Gregory Bull/Associated Press
Waiting in line to register at a career fair in San Diego. Employers sometimes worry that prolonged joblessness undermines skills.
Readers' Comments
"Being 60, I can tell you few people will consider me more than just a passing glance when they see the number of years I have on me vs. the number of years remaining."
jbeeler, Jacksonville, FL
Read Full Comment »
That is a fact of life that much of Europe, with its underclass of permanently idle workers, knows all too well. But it is a lesson that the United States seems to be just learning.
This country has some of the highest levels of long-term unemployment — out of work longer than six months — it has ever recorded. Meanwhile, job growth has been, and looks to remain, disappointingly slow, indicating that those out of work for a while are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Even if the government report on Friday shows the expected improvement in hiring by business, it will not be enough to make a real dent in those totals.
So the legions of long-term unemployed will probably be idle for significantly longer than their counterparts in past recessions, reducing their chances of eventually finding a job even when the economy becomes more robust.
“I am so worried somebody will look at me and say, ‘Oh, he’s probably lost his edge,’ ” said Tim Smyth, 51, a New York television producer who has been unable to find work since 2008, despite having two decades of experience at places like Nickelodeon and the Food Network. “I mean, I know it’s not true, but I’m afraid I might say the same thing if I were interviewing someone I didn’t know very well who’s been out of work this long.”
Mr. Smyth’s anxieties are not unfounded. New data from the Labor Department, provided to The New York Times, shows that people out of work fewer than five weeks are more than three times as likely to find a job in the coming month than people who have been out of work for over a year, with a re-employment rate of 30.7 percent versus 8.7 percent, respectively.
Likewise, previous economic studies, many based on Europe’s job market struggles, have shown that people who become disconnected from the work force have more trouble getting hired, probably because of some combination of stigma, discouragement and deterioration of their skills.
This is one of the biggest challenges facing policy makers in the United States as they seek to address unemployment. Its underlying tenet — that time exacerbates the problem — means that the longer Congress squabbles about how to increase job growth, the more intractable the situation becomes. This, in turn, means Washington would need to pursue more aggressive (and, perversely, more politically difficult) job-creating policies in order to succeed. Even reaching an agreement over whether to extend benefits yet again has proved contentious.
Several factors lead to this downward spiral of the unemployed.
In some cases, the long-term unemployed were poor performers in their previous positions and among the first to be terminated when the recession began. These people are weak job candidates with less impressive résumés and references.
In other instances, those who lost jobs may have been good workers but were laid off from occupations or industries that are in permanent decline, like manufacturing.
But economists have tried to control for these selection issues, and studies comparing the fates of similar workers have also shown that the experience of unemployment itself damages job prospects.
If jobless workers had been in sales, for instance, their customers might have moved on. Or perhaps the list of contacts they could turn to for leads is obsolete. Mr. Smyth, for example, says that so many of his former co-workers have been displaced that he is no longer sure whom to call on about openings.
In particularly dynamic industries, like software engineering, unemployed workers might also miss out on new developments and fail to develop the skills required.
Still, this explanation probably applies to only a small slice of the country’s 6.2 million long-term unemployed.
“I can’t imagine very many occupations and industries are of the type that if you’re out for nine months, the world passes you by,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research organization. “I think this erosion-of-skills idea is way overplayed. It’s probably much more about marketability.”
Many unemployed workers fret about how to explain the yawning gaps on their résumés. Some are calling themselves independent “consultants” or “entrepreneurs.”
1 2 Next Page »
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 4, 2010
An article on Friday about the job prospects of the long-term unemployed referred incompletely to the background of Jay Goltz, who was quoted offering the perspective of an employer. Besides owning five small businesses in Chicago, he also writes the Thinking Entrepreneur posts for The Times’s You’re the Boss blog.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 3, 2010, on page B1 of the New York edition.
01/12 Google Acts to Demote Distasteful Web Sellers
Google Acts to Demote Distasteful Web Sellers
By DAVID SEGAL
Published: December 1, 2010
Google announced on Wednesday that it had changed the way it ranks search results so that unscrupulous merchants would find it harder to appear prominently in searches.
Related
A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web (November 28, 2010) The change was prompted by an article in The New York Times on Sunday about Vitaly Borker, a Brooklyn-based online seller of eyeglasses. Mr. Borker claimed that he purposely shouted at and frightened some of the customers at DecorMyEyes.com because the online complaints actually worked in his favor in Google search results.
In essence, he claimed, Google’s search engine is unable to tell the difference between positive posts and withering online critiques. Therefore, the more complaints posted about Mr. Borker’s site, the more likely customers would be to find his store ranked high on a Google search, which yielded him more revenue.
In a blog posting titled “Being bad to your customers is bad for your business,” Google said that it had revised its algorithm so that it could detect Mr. Borker and “hundreds of other merchants that, in our opinion, provide extremely poor user experience.”
Google did not reveal how it had changed its algorithm, or how that change would affect online sellers like Mr. Borker. It simply said that the more it reveals about the changes it made, the easier it will be for unscrupulous sellers to game it.
“We can’t say for sure that no one will ever find a loophole in our ranking algorithms in the future,” Amit Singhal, a Google fellow, wrote on the blog post.
“We know that people will keep trying.”
With the changes, Mr. Borker has already had a harder time pushing DecorMyEyes to its previous high rankings on Google. The store once showed up on the first page of a search of “Christian Audigier” and “eyeglasses.” As of Wednesday night, it was not in the first 20 pages.
Mr. Singhal said that the change was made after the company read in The Times about the ordeal of Clarabelle Rodriguez, who bought a pair of glasses and contact lenses from DecorMyEyes in July.
When she tried to return the frames and get a refund, Mr. Borker (using one of his favorite pseudonyms, Tony Russo) commenced a campaign of phone and e-mail harassment.
That included threats of litigation and chilling statements like “You put your hand in fire. Now it’s time to get burned.”
He also sent a photograph of the front of her apartment building, and in a separate e-mail wrote “I AM WATCHING YOU.”
Ms. Rodriguez went to the police several times and on Oct. 27, Mr. Borker was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment and stalking.
He is set to be arraigned on Dec. 22.
The Internet is rife with consumer complaints about DecorMyEyes, and even the quickest search of the store’s name yields dozens of outraged testimonials.
In July, Ms. Rodriguez’s search used only the brand name of the glasses she wanted. DecorMyEyes was at the top of Google’s main search page.
“We were horrified to read about Ms. Rodriguez’s dreadful experience,” Mr. Singhal wrote in the blog post. “Even though our initial analysis pointed to this being an edge case and not a widespread problem in our search results, we immediately convened a team that looked carefully at the issue.”
Exactly how Mr. Borker wound up so high in Google searches has been a matter of online debate. His theory is that the great mass of grievances on all those highly regarded consumer complaint sites were the key to his success.
Google cast doubt on that idea, saying that consumer complaint sites typically include special coding along with the mentions to the companies in question so that such links do not count in the companies’ favor in search results.
At the blog Search Engine Land, Byrne Hobart also wrote in a recent posting that the review-generating strategy was not the driver of Mr. Borker’s success. His analysis found that Mr. Borker benefited chiefly from various “black-hat tricks” to improve his site’s standing, including links from what he called auto-generated spam pages. He also found that the store was frequently linked to by mainstream media sites — The Times included — when references were made to high-end eyeglasses.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 2, 2010, on page B1 of the New York edition.
By DAVID SEGAL
Published: December 1, 2010
Google announced on Wednesday that it had changed the way it ranks search results so that unscrupulous merchants would find it harder to appear prominently in searches.
Related
A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web (November 28, 2010) The change was prompted by an article in The New York Times on Sunday about Vitaly Borker, a Brooklyn-based online seller of eyeglasses. Mr. Borker claimed that he purposely shouted at and frightened some of the customers at DecorMyEyes.com because the online complaints actually worked in his favor in Google search results.
In essence, he claimed, Google’s search engine is unable to tell the difference between positive posts and withering online critiques. Therefore, the more complaints posted about Mr. Borker’s site, the more likely customers would be to find his store ranked high on a Google search, which yielded him more revenue.
In a blog posting titled “Being bad to your customers is bad for your business,” Google said that it had revised its algorithm so that it could detect Mr. Borker and “hundreds of other merchants that, in our opinion, provide extremely poor user experience.”
Google did not reveal how it had changed its algorithm, or how that change would affect online sellers like Mr. Borker. It simply said that the more it reveals about the changes it made, the easier it will be for unscrupulous sellers to game it.
“We can’t say for sure that no one will ever find a loophole in our ranking algorithms in the future,” Amit Singhal, a Google fellow, wrote on the blog post.
“We know that people will keep trying.”
With the changes, Mr. Borker has already had a harder time pushing DecorMyEyes to its previous high rankings on Google. The store once showed up on the first page of a search of “Christian Audigier” and “eyeglasses.” As of Wednesday night, it was not in the first 20 pages.
Mr. Singhal said that the change was made after the company read in The Times about the ordeal of Clarabelle Rodriguez, who bought a pair of glasses and contact lenses from DecorMyEyes in July.
When she tried to return the frames and get a refund, Mr. Borker (using one of his favorite pseudonyms, Tony Russo) commenced a campaign of phone and e-mail harassment.
That included threats of litigation and chilling statements like “You put your hand in fire. Now it’s time to get burned.”
He also sent a photograph of the front of her apartment building, and in a separate e-mail wrote “I AM WATCHING YOU.”
Ms. Rodriguez went to the police several times and on Oct. 27, Mr. Borker was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment and stalking.
He is set to be arraigned on Dec. 22.
The Internet is rife with consumer complaints about DecorMyEyes, and even the quickest search of the store’s name yields dozens of outraged testimonials.
In July, Ms. Rodriguez’s search used only the brand name of the glasses she wanted. DecorMyEyes was at the top of Google’s main search page.
“We were horrified to read about Ms. Rodriguez’s dreadful experience,” Mr. Singhal wrote in the blog post. “Even though our initial analysis pointed to this being an edge case and not a widespread problem in our search results, we immediately convened a team that looked carefully at the issue.”
Exactly how Mr. Borker wound up so high in Google searches has been a matter of online debate. His theory is that the great mass of grievances on all those highly regarded consumer complaint sites were the key to his success.
Google cast doubt on that idea, saying that consumer complaint sites typically include special coding along with the mentions to the companies in question so that such links do not count in the companies’ favor in search results.
At the blog Search Engine Land, Byrne Hobart also wrote in a recent posting that the review-generating strategy was not the driver of Mr. Borker’s success. His analysis found that Mr. Borker benefited chiefly from various “black-hat tricks” to improve his site’s standing, including links from what he called auto-generated spam pages. He also found that the store was frequently linked to by mainstream media sites — The Times included — when references were made to high-end eyeglasses.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 2, 2010, on page B1 of the New York edition.
10/11 Top 10 Must-Have Apps for the iPhone, and Some Runners-Up
Top 10 Must-Have Apps for the iPhone, and Some Runners-Up
By BOB TEDESCHI
Published: November 10, 2010
I’m always surprised when I come across people who have yet to fill their iPhone with apps. The most often cited excuse? Not enough time to sift through 300,000 apps to find the good ones.
Enlarge This Image
The Hipstamatic iPhone app, showing the “Lucifer” viewfinder.
Enlarge This Image
The Star Walk app for the iPhone.
True, it can be a slog. (But that’s what I do for you every week.) In this column, I’ve compiled 10 must-have apps that will save you time, make your life easier and make you smile.
You won’t see Twitter, Slacker or Facebook, among others, on this list. Although I find them indispensable, the services aren’t unique to a mobile phone. To make my Top 10, an app must deliver an experience you couldn’t find on your computer — something, in other words, that exemplifies the smartphone at its best.
What qualifies?
GOOGLE (FREE) You can find Google through your mobile browser, but the app is a major time-saver. The voice search function is seamless. Ask it for specific Wikipedia entries, for instance, and it complies. Or just say "Starbucks" and the app uses the phone’s GPS to find the nearest location. A recent update put the "Goggles" service within the app, so you can snap a photo and let Google search for information on that object. And given Google’s emphasis on mobile, the app will continue to improve.
SOUNDHOUND (FREE AND $5) You’ve probably heard of Shazam, the app that identifies songs. SoundHound is faster, and it offers a broader range of ancillary features. You can hum a tune into the phone and it’ll find the song, look up lyrics and run YouTube videos of song performances. The $5 version lets you identify an unlimited number of songs. Users of the free version get five tags monthly.
HIPSTAMATIC ($2) Scores of photography titles are in the App Store. Many are terrific, but not one matches Hipstamatic’s blend of simplicity, serendipity and art. At heart, the app is a filter that will unpredictably saturate, blur or discolor your images, among other things. The results are always surprising and often stunning. Add packs of lenses and film effects for $1 apiece.
EVERNOTE (FREE) The company advertises this as a personal digital assistant, and it’s an apt description. Evernote is a traveling notepad that synchronizes with desktop and browser software (also free). Use your iPhone to copy an image, take a photo, record a voice memo or jot down a note, and it appears on your computer (and vice versa). It also recognizes your written text, within limits. The free version stores a fair amount of information, but for $45 a year, you needn’t sweat the data limits.
ANGRY BIRDS ($1) A runaway favorite among the iPhone crowd, the app tests your ability to break down the barricades that protect green pigs. The weapon: flightless birds, launched by catapult. No wonder they’re angry. The game is easy to learn, yet challenging to play, with witty touches throughout. You can try a limited free version, but if you do, good luck resisting the paid version, with more than 800 possible scenes.
URBANSPOON (FREE) Not sure what to eat, or where? Spin Urbanspoon’s slot machine and it will dial up a suggestion. You can also select certain attributes — Japanese food, for instance, or inexpensive food — and local eateries appear. The app includes user reviews and contact information, and you can press a button for a map and directions.
STAR WALK ($3) Point your phone toward the heavens and this app identifies all you see — constellations, planets, individual stars — in brilliant clarity. If you pivot in another direction, the app follows. It’s an astonishing app that’s great to pull out during dinner parties, beach walks or sleepless nights in bed. You needn’t have a clear view of the sky to experience the starry night.
FIREFOX HOME (FREE) In the same vein as Evernote, Firefox Home is a way to synchronize your desktop and mobile lives. Once you load the app and register, Firefox Home will show your browsing history and bookmarks. If you’re reading an important document online when you leave the office, you can start the app later and pick up where you left off.
QUICKOFFICE MOBILE SUITE ($5) The next time someone e-mails you a Word, Excel or Powerpoint document, Quickoffice will open it and allow you to make quick edits from your iPhone. (Otherwise, you can open, but not edit, Microsoft Office files.) You can also create documents with the app, but it is far less useful for that purpose. Rather, Quickoffice offers a way to complete small work tasks easily while you are on the move.
REDLASER (FREE) It may not tell you if a clothing item makes you look fat, but otherwise RedLaser is a perfect shopping companion. Scan a bar code and it retrieves product information, including prices at online merchants and local stores (in case you are in the mood to haggle). Or follow a spouse or child around a store, scan what they like and you have an instant gift list. The app’s scans sometimes fail, but more often than not RedLaser works smoothly.
Quick Calls
No Top 10 list is fully useful without an “honorable mention” list. The following apps should not be overlooked: Instapaper (free, with $5 “Pro” version; for saving and reading Web pages after you’ve moved offline); CraigsPro+ ($2; search classifieds on Craigslist more easily than on the Web site); The Weather Channel (free; great forecasts at a glance); Yelp (free; find local services, restaurants and bars, including reviews); Layar (free; see customized information about your surroundings); Ocarina ($1; turns your phone into a musical instrument); and Glympse (free; let friends track your location temporarily and easily).
A version of this article appeared in print on November 11, 2010, on page B7 of the New York edition.
By BOB TEDESCHI
Published: November 10, 2010
I’m always surprised when I come across people who have yet to fill their iPhone with apps. The most often cited excuse? Not enough time to sift through 300,000 apps to find the good ones.
Enlarge This Image
The Hipstamatic iPhone app, showing the “Lucifer” viewfinder.
Enlarge This Image
The Star Walk app for the iPhone.
True, it can be a slog. (But that’s what I do for you every week.) In this column, I’ve compiled 10 must-have apps that will save you time, make your life easier and make you smile.
You won’t see Twitter, Slacker or Facebook, among others, on this list. Although I find them indispensable, the services aren’t unique to a mobile phone. To make my Top 10, an app must deliver an experience you couldn’t find on your computer — something, in other words, that exemplifies the smartphone at its best.
What qualifies?
GOOGLE (FREE) You can find Google through your mobile browser, but the app is a major time-saver. The voice search function is seamless. Ask it for specific Wikipedia entries, for instance, and it complies. Or just say "Starbucks" and the app uses the phone’s GPS to find the nearest location. A recent update put the "Goggles" service within the app, so you can snap a photo and let Google search for information on that object. And given Google’s emphasis on mobile, the app will continue to improve.
SOUNDHOUND (FREE AND $5) You’ve probably heard of Shazam, the app that identifies songs. SoundHound is faster, and it offers a broader range of ancillary features. You can hum a tune into the phone and it’ll find the song, look up lyrics and run YouTube videos of song performances. The $5 version lets you identify an unlimited number of songs. Users of the free version get five tags monthly.
HIPSTAMATIC ($2) Scores of photography titles are in the App Store. Many are terrific, but not one matches Hipstamatic’s blend of simplicity, serendipity and art. At heart, the app is a filter that will unpredictably saturate, blur or discolor your images, among other things. The results are always surprising and often stunning. Add packs of lenses and film effects for $1 apiece.
EVERNOTE (FREE) The company advertises this as a personal digital assistant, and it’s an apt description. Evernote is a traveling notepad that synchronizes with desktop and browser software (also free). Use your iPhone to copy an image, take a photo, record a voice memo or jot down a note, and it appears on your computer (and vice versa). It also recognizes your written text, within limits. The free version stores a fair amount of information, but for $45 a year, you needn’t sweat the data limits.
ANGRY BIRDS ($1) A runaway favorite among the iPhone crowd, the app tests your ability to break down the barricades that protect green pigs. The weapon: flightless birds, launched by catapult. No wonder they’re angry. The game is easy to learn, yet challenging to play, with witty touches throughout. You can try a limited free version, but if you do, good luck resisting the paid version, with more than 800 possible scenes.
URBANSPOON (FREE) Not sure what to eat, or where? Spin Urbanspoon’s slot machine and it will dial up a suggestion. You can also select certain attributes — Japanese food, for instance, or inexpensive food — and local eateries appear. The app includes user reviews and contact information, and you can press a button for a map and directions.
STAR WALK ($3) Point your phone toward the heavens and this app identifies all you see — constellations, planets, individual stars — in brilliant clarity. If you pivot in another direction, the app follows. It’s an astonishing app that’s great to pull out during dinner parties, beach walks or sleepless nights in bed. You needn’t have a clear view of the sky to experience the starry night.
FIREFOX HOME (FREE) In the same vein as Evernote, Firefox Home is a way to synchronize your desktop and mobile lives. Once you load the app and register, Firefox Home will show your browsing history and bookmarks. If you’re reading an important document online when you leave the office, you can start the app later and pick up where you left off.
QUICKOFFICE MOBILE SUITE ($5) The next time someone e-mails you a Word, Excel or Powerpoint document, Quickoffice will open it and allow you to make quick edits from your iPhone. (Otherwise, you can open, but not edit, Microsoft Office files.) You can also create documents with the app, but it is far less useful for that purpose. Rather, Quickoffice offers a way to complete small work tasks easily while you are on the move.
REDLASER (FREE) It may not tell you if a clothing item makes you look fat, but otherwise RedLaser is a perfect shopping companion. Scan a bar code and it retrieves product information, including prices at online merchants and local stores (in case you are in the mood to haggle). Or follow a spouse or child around a store, scan what they like and you have an instant gift list. The app’s scans sometimes fail, but more often than not RedLaser works smoothly.
Quick Calls
No Top 10 list is fully useful without an “honorable mention” list. The following apps should not be overlooked: Instapaper (free, with $5 “Pro” version; for saving and reading Web pages after you’ve moved offline); CraigsPro+ ($2; search classifieds on Craigslist more easily than on the Web site); The Weather Channel (free; great forecasts at a glance); Yelp (free; find local services, restaurants and bars, including reviews); Layar (free; see customized information about your surroundings); Ocarina ($1; turns your phone into a musical instrument); and Glympse (free; let friends track your location temporarily and easily).
A version of this article appeared in print on November 11, 2010, on page B7 of the New York edition.
01/12 Top 10 Android Apps By BOB TEDESCHI
App Smart
Top 10 Android AppsBy BOB TEDESCHI
Published: December 1, 2010
A few weeks ago, I compiled a list of essential iPhone apps for people who are too busy to sift through the roughly 300,000 titles in the App Store.
Enlarge This Image
Google’s Sky Map app has a feature that shows what the sky looked like in the past, and what it is expected to look like in the future.
Browse all the mobile app coverage that has appeared in The New York Times by category, and see what Times writers have on their phones and tablets.
All Apps
News and Amusements
Social and Communication
Money
Travel and Food
Tools and Resources
Enlarge This Image
The Slacker app for Android, showing the radio service in progress.
Android users have it even worse. Although there are fewer apps to peruse (around 100,000 at last count), the Android Market is a nightmare to navigate compared with the iTunes App Store.
Yes, even though Google is the master of search, its Android Market’s search feature is less effective than Apple’s. The Market also has no answer for the App Store’s “Staff Favorites,” “Essentials” or “New and Noteworthy” selections, which pull good apps to the front of the catalog.
But that’s why I’m here. Android users, I hereby present 10 indispensable apps and then some. (This list and other lists of favorite apps can be found at http://nyti.ms/fKliAm.)
Some apps on my list are unique to Android, even though app developers still seem to develop for iPhone first. Oh, and the best part about the list? Almost all the apps are free.
Let’s start with Google, which created the Android operating system. The company may do a poor job with the Market, but it creates — and, more to the point, it gives away — stellar software for Android devices.
Google Search (free) is a huge time saver, thanks to the voice-search function. (Ask it for Wikipedia entries and it fetches. Speak the name of a retailer and it finds the nearest location.) And Google Maps (also free) is a big money saver, since it provides the same turn-by-turn navigation features you would have to pay $10 a month for on other phone platforms.
But since those apps come standard on every Android device I’ve ever seen, let’s skip those and get to the ones you’d have to seek out in the Android Market.
GOOGLE SHOPPER (FREE) As mentioned in last week’s column, this app can save you hundreds of dollars by helping you find better prices nearby or online. Scan a bar code and the app takes it from there. If the scan doesn’t work, you can speak the product’s name and the app finds the product.
GOOGLE SKY MAP (FREE) Some serious eye candy that you’ll want to activate on the next cloudless night. Point your device toward the heavens and Sky Map puts a label on every celestial body you see — and some you can’t.
REMOTEDROID (FREE) Turns your phone into a wireless trackpad and mouse. You might not want to use the tiny keypad to input text, but if your computer lacks a trackpad — or if you’d like to liberate your trackpad from its spot — this will make your day.
CARDIOTRAINER (FREE) Arguably better than any fitness app on the iPhone, CardioTrainer is an Android-only program that tracks your fitness regimen and calorie consumption. It includes a music management feature to keep your workout tunes fresh.
SOUNDHOUND (FREE AND $5) It’s Android’s best showoff app after Sky Map. Open SoundHound and it identifies nearly any song — even some you hum. It also finds lyrics and YouTube videos of song performances. The $5 version lets you identify an unlimited number of tunes. Users of the free version get five songs a month.
EVERNOTE (FREE) Can’t afford a personal assistant? This will help. Evernote is a mobile notepad that synchronizes with desktop and browser software (also free). Use your smartphone to take a photo, record a voice memo or jot down a note, and the next time you open Evernote on your desktop computer, your mobile notes appear (and vice versa). The free version stores a fair amount of information, but $45 a year buys unlimited storage.
URBANSPOON (FREE) Great for those with empty stomachs, full wallets and no ideas. Spin Urbanspoon’s slot machine and it offers restaurant suggestions. You can also choose certain attributes — like moderate prices and bistro food — and selections appear. The app includes reviews, contact information, maps and directions.
QUICKOFFICE MOBILE SUITE ($10) You can read Word, Excel or Powerpoint documents on an Android phone, but you can’t edit them without dedicated apps. Quickoffice is, so far, the best of these apps. It lets you create documents in a pinch, but the app’s strength is letting you get bits of work done away from the office.
SLACKER (FREE) You’ve most likely heard of Pandora, the great personalized radio service. Slacker is better, with a deeper catalog of songs. And unlike the Web version, you can download hours of music to your phone and listen when you are offline. (That feature is free to try, but a $4 monthly fee applies thereafter.)
FXCAMERA (FREE) Android doesn’t have anything quite like Hipstamatic, the iPhone app that creates beautiful effects for your photos. FxCamera is close, with several cool filters to choose from, and quick sharing to Facebook.
Honorable Mention
Glympse (free; open the app, hit a couple of buttons and Glympse lets a friend temporarily track your location); Angry Birds (free; not as slick as the iPhone version); Weather Channel (free; offers better forecasts than your phone’s standard weather app); Epicurious (free; find professionally tested recipes, with reviews and shopping lists — the free BigOven app is also very good); FlightTrack ($5; track any flight and get delay forecasts, seat suggestions and gate information); Yelp (free; find local services, restaurants and bars, including reviews); Layar (free; see customized information about your surroundings); Qik (free; broadcast live video from your phone to a Web site) ; DroidLight (free; it’s a flashlight, a strobe light or a message board in a crowded club — indispensable).
A version of this article appeared in print on December 2, 2010, on page B10 of the New York edition.
Top 10 Android AppsBy BOB TEDESCHI
Published: December 1, 2010
A few weeks ago, I compiled a list of essential iPhone apps for people who are too busy to sift through the roughly 300,000 titles in the App Store.
Enlarge This Image
Google’s Sky Map app has a feature that shows what the sky looked like in the past, and what it is expected to look like in the future.
Browse all the mobile app coverage that has appeared in The New York Times by category, and see what Times writers have on their phones and tablets.
All Apps
News and Amusements
Social and Communication
Money
Travel and Food
Tools and Resources
Enlarge This Image
The Slacker app for Android, showing the radio service in progress.
Android users have it even worse. Although there are fewer apps to peruse (around 100,000 at last count), the Android Market is a nightmare to navigate compared with the iTunes App Store.
Yes, even though Google is the master of search, its Android Market’s search feature is less effective than Apple’s. The Market also has no answer for the App Store’s “Staff Favorites,” “Essentials” or “New and Noteworthy” selections, which pull good apps to the front of the catalog.
But that’s why I’m here. Android users, I hereby present 10 indispensable apps and then some. (This list and other lists of favorite apps can be found at http://nyti.ms/fKliAm.)
Some apps on my list are unique to Android, even though app developers still seem to develop for iPhone first. Oh, and the best part about the list? Almost all the apps are free.
Let’s start with Google, which created the Android operating system. The company may do a poor job with the Market, but it creates — and, more to the point, it gives away — stellar software for Android devices.
Google Search (free) is a huge time saver, thanks to the voice-search function. (Ask it for Wikipedia entries and it fetches. Speak the name of a retailer and it finds the nearest location.) And Google Maps (also free) is a big money saver, since it provides the same turn-by-turn navigation features you would have to pay $10 a month for on other phone platforms.
But since those apps come standard on every Android device I’ve ever seen, let’s skip those and get to the ones you’d have to seek out in the Android Market.
GOOGLE SHOPPER (FREE) As mentioned in last week’s column, this app can save you hundreds of dollars by helping you find better prices nearby or online. Scan a bar code and the app takes it from there. If the scan doesn’t work, you can speak the product’s name and the app finds the product.
GOOGLE SKY MAP (FREE) Some serious eye candy that you’ll want to activate on the next cloudless night. Point your device toward the heavens and Sky Map puts a label on every celestial body you see — and some you can’t.
REMOTEDROID (FREE) Turns your phone into a wireless trackpad and mouse. You might not want to use the tiny keypad to input text, but if your computer lacks a trackpad — or if you’d like to liberate your trackpad from its spot — this will make your day.
CARDIOTRAINER (FREE) Arguably better than any fitness app on the iPhone, CardioTrainer is an Android-only program that tracks your fitness regimen and calorie consumption. It includes a music management feature to keep your workout tunes fresh.
SOUNDHOUND (FREE AND $5) It’s Android’s best showoff app after Sky Map. Open SoundHound and it identifies nearly any song — even some you hum. It also finds lyrics and YouTube videos of song performances. The $5 version lets you identify an unlimited number of tunes. Users of the free version get five songs a month.
EVERNOTE (FREE) Can’t afford a personal assistant? This will help. Evernote is a mobile notepad that synchronizes with desktop and browser software (also free). Use your smartphone to take a photo, record a voice memo or jot down a note, and the next time you open Evernote on your desktop computer, your mobile notes appear (and vice versa). The free version stores a fair amount of information, but $45 a year buys unlimited storage.
URBANSPOON (FREE) Great for those with empty stomachs, full wallets and no ideas. Spin Urbanspoon’s slot machine and it offers restaurant suggestions. You can also choose certain attributes — like moderate prices and bistro food — and selections appear. The app includes reviews, contact information, maps and directions.
QUICKOFFICE MOBILE SUITE ($10) You can read Word, Excel or Powerpoint documents on an Android phone, but you can’t edit them without dedicated apps. Quickoffice is, so far, the best of these apps. It lets you create documents in a pinch, but the app’s strength is letting you get bits of work done away from the office.
SLACKER (FREE) You’ve most likely heard of Pandora, the great personalized radio service. Slacker is better, with a deeper catalog of songs. And unlike the Web version, you can download hours of music to your phone and listen when you are offline. (That feature is free to try, but a $4 monthly fee applies thereafter.)
FXCAMERA (FREE) Android doesn’t have anything quite like Hipstamatic, the iPhone app that creates beautiful effects for your photos. FxCamera is close, with several cool filters to choose from, and quick sharing to Facebook.
Honorable Mention
Glympse (free; open the app, hit a couple of buttons and Glympse lets a friend temporarily track your location); Angry Birds (free; not as slick as the iPhone version); Weather Channel (free; offers better forecasts than your phone’s standard weather app); Epicurious (free; find professionally tested recipes, with reviews and shopping lists — the free BigOven app is also very good); FlightTrack ($5; track any flight and get delay forecasts, seat suggestions and gate information); Yelp (free; find local services, restaurants and bars, including reviews); Layar (free; see customized information about your surroundings); Qik (free; broadcast live video from your phone to a Web site) ; DroidLight (free; it’s a flashlight, a strobe light or a message board in a crowded club — indispensable).
A version of this article appeared in print on December 2, 2010, on page B10 of the New York edition.
02/12 Freezing Out Hope By PAUL KRUGMAN
Op-Ed Columnist
Freezing Out Hope
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: December 2, 2010
After the Democratic “shellacking” in the midterm elections, everyone wondered how President Obama would respond. Would he show what he was made of? Would he stand firm for the values he believes in, even in the face of political adversity?
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman
Go to Columnist Page »
.Blog: The Conscience of a Liberal.On Monday, we got the answer: he announced a pay freeze for federal workers. This was an announcement that had it all. It was transparently cynical; it was trivial in scale, but misguided in direction; and by making the announcement, Mr. Obama effectively conceded the policy argument to the very people who are seeking — successfully, it seems — to destroy him.
So I guess we are, in fact, seeing what Mr. Obama is made of.
About that pay freeze: the president likes to talk about “teachable moments.” Well, in this case he seems eager to teach Americans something false.
The truth is that America’s long-run deficit problem has nothing at all to do with overpaid federal workers. For one thing, those workers aren’t overpaid. Federal salaries are, on average, somewhat less than those of private-sector workers with equivalent qualifications. And, anyway, employee pay is only a small fraction of federal expenses; even cutting the payroll in half would reduce total spending less than 3 percent.
So freezing federal pay is cynical deficit-reduction theater. It’s a (literally) cheap trick that only sounds impressive to people who don’t know anything about budget realities. The actual savings, about $5 billion over two years, are chump change given the scale of the deficit.
Anyway, slashing federal spending at a time when the economy is depressed is exactly the wrong thing to do. Just ask Federal Reserve officials, who have lately been more or less pleading for some help in their efforts to promote faster job growth.
Meanwhile, there’s a real deficit issue on the table: whether tax cuts for the wealthy will, as Republicans demand, be extended. Just as a reminder, over the next 75 years the cost of making those tax cuts permanent would be roughly equal to the entire expected financial shortfall of Social Security. Mr. Obama’s pay ploy might, just might, have been justified if he had used the announcement of a freeze as an occasion to take a strong stand against Republican demands — to declare that at a time when deficits are an important issue, tax breaks for the wealthiest aren’t acceptable.
But he didn’t. Instead, he apparently intended the pay freeze announcement as a peace gesture to Republicans the day before a bipartisan summit. At that meeting, Mr. Obama, who has faced two years of complete scorched-earth opposition, declared that he had failed to reach out sufficiently to his implacable enemies. He did not, as far as anyone knows, wear a sign on his back saying “Kick me,” although he might as well have.
There were no comparable gestures from the other side. Instead, Senate Republicans declared that none of the rest of the legislation on the table — legislation that includes such things as a strategic arms treaty that’s vital to national security — would be acted on until the tax-cut issue was resolved, presumably on their terms.
It’s hard to escape the impression that Republicans have taken Mr. Obama’s measure — that they’re calling his bluff in the belief that he can be counted on to fold. And it’s also hard to escape the impression that they’re right.
The real question is what Mr. Obama and his inner circle are thinking. Do they really believe, after all this time, that gestures of appeasement to the G.O.P. will elicit a good-faith response?
What’s even more puzzling is the apparent indifference of the Obama team to the effect of such gestures on their supporters. One would have expected a candidate who rode the enthusiasm of activists to an upset victory in the Democratic primary to realize that this enthusiasm was an important asset. Instead, however, Mr. Obama almost seems as if he’s trying, systematically, to disappoint his once-fervent supporters, to convince the people who put him where he is that they made an embarrassing mistake.
Whatever is going on inside the White House, from the outside it looks like moral collapse — a complete failure of purpose and loss of direction.
So what are Democrats to do? The answer, increasingly, seems to be that they’ll have to strike out on their own. In particular, Democrats in Congress still have the ability to put their opponents on the spot — as they did on Thursday when they forced a vote on extending middle-class tax cuts, putting Republicans in the awkward position of voting against the middle class to safeguard tax cuts for the rich.
It would be much easier, of course, for Democrats to draw a line if Mr. Obama would do his part. But all indications are that the party will have to look elsewhere for the leadership it needs.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on December 3, 2010, on page A31 of the New York edition
Freezing Out Hope
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: December 2, 2010
After the Democratic “shellacking” in the midterm elections, everyone wondered how President Obama would respond. Would he show what he was made of? Would he stand firm for the values he believes in, even in the face of political adversity?
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman
Go to Columnist Page »
.Blog: The Conscience of a Liberal.On Monday, we got the answer: he announced a pay freeze for federal workers. This was an announcement that had it all. It was transparently cynical; it was trivial in scale, but misguided in direction; and by making the announcement, Mr. Obama effectively conceded the policy argument to the very people who are seeking — successfully, it seems — to destroy him.
So I guess we are, in fact, seeing what Mr. Obama is made of.
About that pay freeze: the president likes to talk about “teachable moments.” Well, in this case he seems eager to teach Americans something false.
The truth is that America’s long-run deficit problem has nothing at all to do with overpaid federal workers. For one thing, those workers aren’t overpaid. Federal salaries are, on average, somewhat less than those of private-sector workers with equivalent qualifications. And, anyway, employee pay is only a small fraction of federal expenses; even cutting the payroll in half would reduce total spending less than 3 percent.
So freezing federal pay is cynical deficit-reduction theater. It’s a (literally) cheap trick that only sounds impressive to people who don’t know anything about budget realities. The actual savings, about $5 billion over two years, are chump change given the scale of the deficit.
Anyway, slashing federal spending at a time when the economy is depressed is exactly the wrong thing to do. Just ask Federal Reserve officials, who have lately been more or less pleading for some help in their efforts to promote faster job growth.
Meanwhile, there’s a real deficit issue on the table: whether tax cuts for the wealthy will, as Republicans demand, be extended. Just as a reminder, over the next 75 years the cost of making those tax cuts permanent would be roughly equal to the entire expected financial shortfall of Social Security. Mr. Obama’s pay ploy might, just might, have been justified if he had used the announcement of a freeze as an occasion to take a strong stand against Republican demands — to declare that at a time when deficits are an important issue, tax breaks for the wealthiest aren’t acceptable.
But he didn’t. Instead, he apparently intended the pay freeze announcement as a peace gesture to Republicans the day before a bipartisan summit. At that meeting, Mr. Obama, who has faced two years of complete scorched-earth opposition, declared that he had failed to reach out sufficiently to his implacable enemies. He did not, as far as anyone knows, wear a sign on his back saying “Kick me,” although he might as well have.
There were no comparable gestures from the other side. Instead, Senate Republicans declared that none of the rest of the legislation on the table — legislation that includes such things as a strategic arms treaty that’s vital to national security — would be acted on until the tax-cut issue was resolved, presumably on their terms.
It’s hard to escape the impression that Republicans have taken Mr. Obama’s measure — that they’re calling his bluff in the belief that he can be counted on to fold. And it’s also hard to escape the impression that they’re right.
The real question is what Mr. Obama and his inner circle are thinking. Do they really believe, after all this time, that gestures of appeasement to the G.O.P. will elicit a good-faith response?
What’s even more puzzling is the apparent indifference of the Obama team to the effect of such gestures on their supporters. One would have expected a candidate who rode the enthusiasm of activists to an upset victory in the Democratic primary to realize that this enthusiasm was an important asset. Instead, however, Mr. Obama almost seems as if he’s trying, systematically, to disappoint his once-fervent supporters, to convince the people who put him where he is that they made an embarrassing mistake.
Whatever is going on inside the White House, from the outside it looks like moral collapse — a complete failure of purpose and loss of direction.
So what are Democrats to do? The answer, increasingly, seems to be that they’ll have to strike out on their own. In particular, Democrats in Congress still have the ability to put their opponents on the spot — as they did on Thursday when they forced a vote on extending middle-class tax cuts, putting Republicans in the awkward position of voting against the middle class to safeguard tax cuts for the rich.
It would be much easier, of course, for Democrats to draw a line if Mr. Obama would do his part. But all indications are that the party will have to look elsewhere for the leadership it needs.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on December 3, 2010, on page A31 of the New York edition
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