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George Hammond 8 HOURS AGO For the first time in 30 years, London’s population is falling. Coronavirus has stemmed the flow of migrants into the capital and created new reasons for residents to depart. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, almost 700,000 foreign-born residents may have left the city, according to one estimate by the government-funded Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE). The loss — which at that level would be equal to about 8 per cent of London’s population — is already being felt in the city’s property market. Rental prices in inner London have fallen sharply since the start of the pandemic, and the number of property sales in the capital’s prime, central areas has dropped as international buyers have been kept away. But will this be a shortlived dip, or something more sustained? With the vaccine rollout under way, some experts think that overseas renters and buyers will return in droves once shops and businesses can reopen. Others believe that underlying e...

How Much Did "The Culture of Narcissism" Get Right? Forty years ago, Christopher Lasch described a soulless society headed toward a "war of all against all." Looking back at a book TK readers chose for review Matt Taibbi Jan 17 1,139 1,181 It is symptomatic of the underlying tenor of American life that vulgar terms for sexual intercourse also convey the sense of getting the better of someone, working him over, taking him in, imposing your will through guile, deception, or superior force. — Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism Back in 1979, social critic Christopher Lasch wasn’t buying the idea that Americans in the sex-drugs-and-disco era were actually having fun. “This hedonism is a fraud,” he wrote. “The pursuit of pleasure disguises a struggle for power. Americans have not really become more sociable and cooperative… they have merely become more adept at exploiting the conventions of interpersonal relations for their own benefit.” Lasch’s reasoning ...

Cult Nation National politics has robbed us of our selves. Matt Taibbi Jan 15 799 1,148 State and federal security officials are reportedly bracing for armed demonstrations in all 50 states next week. Measures include layered fencing and secure areas, deployment of tactical teams, and designation of a “national special security event.” We appear on the verge of literal Balkanization, a Yugoslavia-style social breakdown. Two stories demonstrate how we got to this awful place. The first person to die by violence in the Capitol riots was Ashlii Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who’d served in two wars and worked at a San Diego-area pool supply company. She was part of the huge crowd that poured over outer gates like a flood tide only to be stopped by a locked entrance to the Speaker’s Hall. Dressed in snow boots and a Trump flag she wore as a cape, Babbitt appeared to be trying to break through when a Capitol guard shot her in the neck: Jayden X @realjaydenx Trump Supporter Gets Shot ...

The Wokest News Stories of 2020 When editors in 2020 weren't being fired in bunches, they were taking aim at everything from Beethoven to mermaids to skyscrapers Matt Taibbi 12 hr ago 247 141 The year 2020 will be remembered in the real world for a terrifying pandemic, mass unemployment, a nationwide protest movement, and a historically uninspiring presidential race. The year in media, meanwhile, was marked by grotesque factual scandals, journalist-cheered censorship, and an accelerating newsroom mania for political groupthink that was equal parts frightening and ridiculous. The tiniest violations of perceived orthodoxies cost jobs. Reporters and editors were whacked en masse in uprisings at the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Wall Street Journal, Vox, the Miami Herald, and countless other places. Some of the purges were themselves amazing news stories. A contractor named Sue Schafer was fired after the Washington Post published a 3,000-word expose about a two-ye...

They Were Young Once, Too: Neera Tanden Even in high school, Joe Biden's OMB pick knew the right role models Matt Taibbi Dec 23, 2020 22 16 On February 9, 1968, Secretary of State Dean Rusk blew up at reporters. The Tet Offensive had just kicked off and the press wanted was bent on giving the Johnson administration a hard time, about the whole losing-a-brutal-occupation thing. One reporter asked if Rusk, who’d begun service under Kennedy years before, was “satisfied” with the intelligence on the ground in Vietnam. “One is never satisfied,” he quipped. “But the point is, I don’t see why you have to start from the dissatisfaction. There gets to be a point where the question is, whose side are you on?” “You’re not suggesting…” the reporter began. “During World War II there was never a time when you couldn’t find a reason to bitch at your allies or at intelligence or the commander of the adjoining unit or the quartermaster who wasn’t giving you your toilet seat at the right time,...

The Legacy of President Donald Trump He was America's tour guide on its loudest, most exhausting, and longest-ever journey in a circle. Matt Taibbi Dec 23, 2020 727 880 Reports say Donald Trump has lost it. Unable to face the reality that he will no longer be president soon, stung by public repudiations from the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell, Vladimir Putin, Bill Barr, and other erstwhile pals, he is said to be canceling appearances left and right, retreating to a lonely schedule of golf and manic conspiracy theorizing on Twitter. He posted 550 times in just a few weeks of November, with three-fourths of that content, the New York Times for some reason calculated, made up of rants about a stolen election. Unlike past presidents, who with the exception of Dick Nixon were all feted on the way out no matter what crooked or blood-soaked record they left behind, Trump is being ridden out on a rail. He exits politics as he entered it, as a human punchline, a ball of catnip to the com...