The current Spiegel English edition has a very well written article on the “nouveau poor” in the USA. This ought to have special meaning for the UW at a time when British students are protesting their new government’s plan to change from free tuition to loans. Imagine, that! The students are upset at an experiment that would make education only available without debt to the upper classes! The students seem unaware that this experiment is the norm in the USA! the tutition? $15,000/year.
The article 
raises an important question. While Germany and China are utterly different countries, both are dealing very well with the threat of a second Depression. America, in contrast, may be failing. Why?
Spiegel suggests that the problem is that the US system serves entrepreneurs rather than the American citizens. In China, the Communist Party, after Deng Xiaoping put empirical economics above party dogma. In Germany, devastated by WWII, even conservative governments have focused industrial policy on public welfare. The Germans do not have faith in the magic hand of capitalism any more than the Chinese put their faith in the religion of Maoism. Both see industrial policy as a tool to benefit their nations.
The tie to issues facing the UW and the state of Washington should be obvious.
Spiegel is featured on THE-Ave Blogstand.