All posts tagged: Gilad Edelman

Extremism in the military is a problem

Extremism in the military is a problem

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. The United States has long been blessed with a civil-military relationship that is a model of democratic and civic stability. Extremism in the ranks, however, is growing—and dangerous. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Small but Growing Last month, the U.S. Department of Defense finally released a report on extremism in the American military after a long delay. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had commissioned the study in early 2021, four months after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and a contractor, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), completed its work in the spring of 2022—but the report wasn’t published for more than a year. The study wasn’t much of a bombshell. It confirmed what many observers of the military—including me, based on decades of teaching military officers—already knew: that political extremism in the U.S. …

No, the Economy Isn’t Tanking

No, the Economy Isn’t Tanking

Published by skeptic

The illusion persists, despite all evidence. Americans are pessimistic about the economic future. They feel worse off than their parents were. Poll after poll shows that at best, only 20 percent of Americans say the economy is doing better than it was a year ago. More than 20 percent of Americans are doing better than they were a year ago, by many measures: Unemployment is lower. Wages are growing. Inflation is declining. This is true for Americans across ages and classes. These are tangible improvements in household income that should be cheering people up. And still, they are not. Why? What tricks are our minds playing on us that we can’t feel hopeful? In this episode of Radio Atlantic, I interview Gilad Edelman, a senior editor at The Atlantic who covers the economy. Edelman was also stumped by the mystery. Typically as inflation improves, so does the American mood. But for the first time in decades, that didn’t happen. In a poll commissioned by The Atlantic, Edelman set out to figure out what factor the …