Freedom From Fear of Sluggish Economic Growth

Italy was pitched into chaos Monday night after early election results suggested that the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had surged back on to the political scene in a triumph that could enable him to undermine or even block a new government. The two houses of parliament were split between the billionaire tycoon’s conservative coalition and the centre-left Democratic Party, led by Pier Luigi Bersani, a 61-year-old former Communist and the son of a mechanic.

By Philip Pilkington, a writer and research assistant at Kingston University in London. You can follow him on Twitter @pilkingtonphil

TORONTO — Liberals are into the home stretch of their five-month leadership race this week, with 127,000 party members and supporters to cast their votes between now and Sunday on who they want to lead them into the next election. The stakes are high as Liberals are facing the very real prospects of seeing their third-place party — once considered the “natural governing party” of Canada — cease to exist should they make the wrong decision.

Republicans may feel electoral pressure to vote for comprehensive immigration reform. They shouldn't – at least in the short term. Latino voters are Democrats, and Republicans would gain little even by making a 180-degree turn on immigration reform in the next 15 years. Here are five reasons why.

As Atrios says:

Robert Pozen has a piece in the Washington Post making the argument that progressives could embrace a vision of Social Security reform that reduces outlays while enhancing the program’s progressive distributive impact. His proposal is similar in many ways to what CAP put ont he table late last year.

The worst thing that happens after most US elections is that people begin to debate whether or not the election in question is/was a “realignment” election.