Noam Scheiber on the truth about the fiscal cliff, Paul Krugman on the end of growth, Robert Samuelson on elite high schools, Walter Russell Mead on Syria, and Bruce Crumley on France's colonial legacy.
The recent reports from the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Survey have been a persistently middling to depressing economic indicator, but September's 9-point gain over August made for a bit of unexpected good news.
Thursday saw some unexpectedly hopeful employment data from both the U.S. government and private analysts, as the number of initial employment claims fell 14,000 for the week while payroll firm ADP reported the country added 176,000 jobs in June.
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