Weekend reading (UPDATED)

GOOD reads today:

Caroline Kennedy endorses Barack Obama

"I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility." (From NYT, Jan. 27, 2008)

How to prevent the U.S. and the global economy from sliding into recession? Spend, Asia!

"The tremendous rate of savings in East Asia is another reason Asia is in a better position to prevent global recession than anybody else. During the East Asian financial crisis of 1997, some currencies weakened dangerously. At the time, national governments lacked enough reserve foreign currency to counterbalance this devaluation. The lesson that East Asia took away from this experience was to maintain large enough reserves to prevent drastic currency fluctuations. As a result, Asian governments now accumulate foreign currency for reserve purposes at a rate far in excess of any other region." (From the Asian Sentinel, Jan. 25, 2008.)

Telling her own story, Michelle Obama finds her voice too

"You think of my parents who didn't go to college, who sent not one but two of us to Princeton, my brother and I," she told the 200 or so students that came to hear her speak. "And the one thing that is clear to me as I've traveled the country is the story of my father is the story of America, I don't care what color what folks are, I don't care if they grew up on a farm or in the inner city." (From TIME online, Jan. 24, 2008)

French Trader Is Remembered as Mr. Average

"André Tiran, the dean of the faculty at the University of Lyon, theorized that Mr. Kerviel’s training in risk control management might have given him some critical advantages in any financial scheming.

'It’s a little bit like becoming a thief with training in locksmithing,' Mr. Tiran said. 'If you’re good at being a locksmith, then to steal is easier.' " (From the NYT, Jan. 26, 2008)