The venerable literary mag from Chicago returns after a hiatus. Astra Taylor ponders the Internet as unfettered “Punk Capitalism”, and an erudite Naomi Klein considers No Logo ten years on (and the Obama era). The Baffler gang has outdone themselves—complete and exhaustive coverage of the financial crisis from a dozen angles: Michael Lind on oligarchy, Yves Smith on the morality that was within financial institutions, and A. S. Hamrah on Thomas Kinkade’s corporate art empire. These are some of the most well thought out and well written essays I’ve read in a long time, all gathered in one place. There’s fiction with chat room terrorists, and Matt Taibbi reviewing Rod Blagojevich’s quickie autobiography from a perch so high I almost experienced vertigo reading it. I leave it to others to decipher the elegiac fiction that closes the issue recounting a little known incident with President Jimmy Carter and a rabbit.
