Babytalk
Even if you’ve read it 87 times before, the fact that Norway provides 42 weeks of paid maternity leave still gets the ol’ blood boiling a bit. We’re thrilled for our Norwegian counterparts, really we are. It’s the inevitable juxtaposition that ticks us off: The United States guarantees zero paid days, leaving employers to decide for themselves how to treat their working moms. Sure, the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act requires companies with 50 or more employees to offer 12 weeks of unpaid leave, but that hardly leaves us singing hosanna. November’s Babytalk outlines six ways you can fight for better maternity leave, including joining a citizens group that champions the cause and signing up for e-mail notification whenever maternity-leave legislation is imminent. The article will leave you feeling empowered to make a difference (and a little bit ready to move to Scandinavia).
— Heidi Stevens
Vanity Fair
Of course, you’ll want to start with dessert and read all about The Girl Who Would Be Queen (Prince William’s six-year squeeze, Kate Middleton). We, though, went straight for the peas and carrots in November’s VF — just so you could dabble in the, um, richer fare. We tackled Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz’s “Reversal of Fortune,” his decidedly straight-talking four-page take on how the U.S. economy wound up on life support. Actually, if you grab a highlighter and make notes in the margin, it’s worth reading. But in case you turn up your nose at veggies and whatever’s good for you, here’s what you need to know: The American economy, Stiglitz posits, is akin to a patient who arrives at a hospital in serious condition not because of a debilitating ailment that might be cured with massive doses of antibiotics, but rather because it suffers from a decade of serious abuse: “smoking, drinking, overeating, lack of exercise, a fondness for crystal meth.” Egad. “We are in the midst of micro-economic failure on a grand scale,” he writes. His prescription: Ditch ethanol policy (it’s bad for taxpayers and the environment; good only for corn farmers). Skew taxes toward the rich, not the middle class. Institute a financial-products safety commission (“self-regulation is an oxymoron,” Stiglitz writes). A parting thought: “Throwing the poor out of their homes … is not only tragic — it is pointless,” he declares. Vacant homes erode in value and wreck the neighborhood.
Now, that wasn’t so awful, was it?
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— Barbara Mahany