There's a writer/journalist/all-around-troublemaker who has been particularly focused and intense recently that I think is very worthwhile reading if you are not familiar with him.
Matt Taibbi's blog can be found at True/Slant, and he has had some large pieces in outlets like Rolling Stone.
I wanted to point him out because he's been hitting a nerve that's a lot of why I went to business school. There has been such a void of real leadership in the business community that a lot of anger and outrage and disgust has been generated in society. Pew did a study recently that asked people to rank various professions that contribute to the well-being of society. The category for 'business executives' saw only 21% agree with an assessment of contributing a lot. Even lawyers were more widely regarded as contributors.
We're more and more confronting a crossroads, a major fork, of the whole concept of economics as it works in the United States. If you agree with Taibbi's general thrust, his reading is some of the most fun and in-depth you'll find anywhere. If you don't agree, I would argue, his stuff is that much more important to be aware of, because he's one of the writers that takes the time to spell out in detail his positions without losing the bluntness and passion that many people feel without being able to articulate quite so clearly.
If those of us who want to largely save a capitalist, market-based system don't deal with the factors that cause such disgust with the whole system, then ultimately we are going to face a much larger period of transition and dislocation. The longer we deny that excessive feeding of ego and greed cause systemic problems, the less credibility we have in offering tweaks to the system in the face of calls to overhaul the whole thing in favor of something much different.
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