Editor's Note
Give ’Em What They Want
by Paul Glastris

Tilting at Windmills
Mad money . . . Regulation by milquetoasts . . . Pulp this item . . .
by Charles Peters

Cover . . .

The Next Real Estate Boom
How housing (yes, housing) can turn the economy around.
by Patrick C. Doherty and Christopher B. Leinberger

Features . . .

The Closing of the Marijuana Frontier
California is not just deciding whether pot should be legal. It’s determining the shape of a major new American industry.
by John Gravois

Bringing It All Back Home
Want to really fix the economy? Stop spending $300 billion a year on foreign oil, and invest it instead in ethanol and other homegrown fuels.
by Wesley K. Clark

Against the Grain
President Obama wants us to support ethanol. How about we do something better for the American farmer?
by Heather Rogers

Prison Break
How Michigan managed to empty its penitentiaries while lowering its crime rate.
by Luke Mogelson

On Political Books . . .

Surge Behind
An ill-timed but illuminating romp through the golden age of grassroots Democratic enthusiasm—a whole twenty-four months ago.
by Walter Shapiro

Lines of Authority
“Net neutrality” isn’t the only way to keep big telecom companies from controlling what we see, hear, and read.
by Steven Pearlstein

Liberalism Without Limits
When will we know that government has grown large enough? When our freedom is restored.
by John E. Schwarz

Inscrutable Shoppers
If we want to sell more to the Chinese, maybe we should find out what they actually want to buy.
by Christina Larson

Belief in Relief
Why humanitarian aid isn’t the lost cause critics say it is.
by Charles Kenny

Moynihan's Legacy
Great writer, lousy senator.
by Michael O'Donnell