News Nuggets 1335

DAYLEE PICTURE: Train lights in Tokyo, Japan.  From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT EUROPEAN ECONOMY NUGGET!!
Young and Educated in Europe, but Desperate for Jobs from the New York Times
"Five years after the economic crisis struck the Continent, youth unemployment has climbed to staggering levels in many countries: in September, 56 percent in Spain for those 24 and younger, 57 percent in Greece, 40 percent in Italy, 37 percent in Portugal and 28 percent in Ireland. For people 25 to 30, the rates are half to two-thirds as high and rising. Those are Great Depression-like rates of unemployment, and there is no sign that European economies, still barely emerging from recession, are about to generate the jobs necessary to bring those Europeans into the work force soon, perhaps in their lifetimes."

A Changing World Order? (Robert Kagan) from the Washington Post
"Overall, the much-heralded return of a multipolar world of roughly equal great powers, akin to that which existed before World War II, has been delayed for at least a few more decades. Absent some unexpected dramatic change, the international system will continue to be that of one
superpower and several great powers, or as the late Samuel P. Huntington called it, “uni-multipolarity.”"

The Stakes of an Iranian Deal (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post 
"The Saudis now are blocking formation of any government in Lebanon, for example, to obstruct Iran’s ally, Hezbollah. In Syria, the Saudis seem ready to fight the Sunni-Shiite battle down to the last Syrian.  Better to seek a turn in relations with Iran through diplomacy that can limit its nuclear program, Obama reasons. He’s right."

Stay the Dogs of War on Iran (Leslie H. Gelb) from the Daily Beast 
"We don't know whether relations with Iran will go toward peace or war, but the interim freeze again under negotiations this week holds little risk and much promise. Don't let the hawks on both sides kill it, writes Leslie H. Gelb."

A Permanent Slump? (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"... what if the world we’ve been living in for the past five years is the new normal? What if depression-like conditions are on track to persist, not for another year or two, but for decades?"

How Falling Gas Prices Could Accelerate Economic Growth from The Week  
"Incredibly, the U.S. is now on track to become the world’s biggest oil producer in just two years."

Economists Discover the Poor Behave Differently From the Rich (Brendan Greeley) from Businessweek
"It turned out that actual people didn’t behave like the imaginary proxy. Economists are learning that the poor and the wealthy respond differently to austerity and stimulus. This could present challenges to politicians. If people behave differently, then policy might have to treat them differently."

SHOCKER: Obamacare Is Working Best In States That Aren’t Trying To Sabotage It (Jason Sattler) from the National Memo
"Of the 106,185 people who have completed an application for health insurance, nearly 75 percent came from 14 states and the District of Columbia that both set up their own exchanges and expanded Medicaid. Unsurprisingly, California and New York combined for the bulk of the enrollments, 51,769. But the most promising news from the Golden State wasn’t even included in this report."

President Calls GOP and Insurance Companies' Bluff (Egberto Willies) from Daily Kos
"The fix the president has instituted is rather ingenious. More importantly it immediately ensured that Congress, the insurance companies, and the American citizens absorb responsibility for the solution."

Conservatives Confident America Rejecting Obamacare, Ready for Every-Man-for-Himself Care (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine 
"The Republican plan is to move as many people as possible from the kind of insurance they like to the kind of insurance they hate. Obama's plan is to make unpopular individual health insurance more like the popular employer-based health insurance, with lots of cross-subsidies from healthy to sick. The conservative plans propose to make popular employer insurance more like the unpopular individual market."

The GOP's Unhealthy Bias Against Obamacare (Norm Ornstein) from National Journal
"The Republican frenzy to trash the law has nothing to do with its fundamental purpose: providing health care to those who need it most. ... For every unfortunate story now of an individual losing his or her existing plan—each of whom will get replacement coverage, albeit some with higher costs—there are stories of those who discovered after it was too late that the coverage was not there when they needed it, or was canceled because of a real or imagined preexisting condition."

Tea Party Group Will Primary 87 Republican “Traitors” from Buzzfeed 
"The Tea Party Leadership Fund is hoping to find “credible challengers” to any Republican who voted for the shutdown deal in October. At the top of the list: House Speaker John Boehner."

SLEEP NUGGET!!
7 Surprising Reasons You Wake Up Tired (Melanie Haiken) from Caring.com 
"When you can't sleep, you know it. But what about when you can, yet you wake up feeling tired and achy or you're groggy again a few hours later? What's that about?"

PRESIDENTIAL BOOK REVIEW NUGGET!!
Heroes and Crusaders: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s ‘Bully Pulpit’ from the New York Times
"If you find the grubby spectacle of today’s Washington cause for shame and despair — and, really, how could you not? — then I suggest you turn off the TV and board Doris Kearns Goodwin’s latest time machine. Let her transport you back to the turn of the 20th century, to a time when this country had politicians of stature and conscience, when the public believed that government could right great wrongs, when, before truncated attention spans, a 50,000-word exposé of corruption could sell out magazines and galvanize a reluctant Congress."

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL NUGGET!!
Braves Leave Atlanta — And Fans — Behind (Jonathan Mahler) from the National Memo
"The real surprise isn’t that a sports team that doesn’t need a new stadium is getting one, or even that a county that can’t afford to pay teachers is planning to spend $300 million subsidizing a $629 million professional baseball franchise. It’s that a Major League team wants to move to the suburbs, which goes against pretty much everything we have learned since Camden Yards opened in downtown Baltimore in 1992, leading baseball back into the heart of America’s cities."

ODD CHINESE CULTURE NUGGET!!
Benedict Cumberbatch Is a Gay Erotic God in China from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Why is the Chinese Internet obsessed with writing gay Sherlock Holmes fanfiction?"