Race and financial deregulation

Policies can have unintended consequences and most of the time if we talk about them they are negative. However, financial deregulation in US might have had a favorable one; that of reducing the wage gap between whites and blacks. This weeks Economic Focus from the Economist comments on two papers which argue that it was indeed the case.

Is Obama really that different?

If Obama wins the elections tonight, it indeed would be a historical moment. But what does this mean for other nations? Will the rise of Obama significantly alter the way the world sees US? Will US ever refrain from mindless meddling in other nation's affairs under the pretext of "war on terror"? Will it ever stop touting 9/11 as the only deplorable act of terrorism in the world? Will it ever stop to think that people who see American planes bombing their homeland actually see it as act of terror?

This article in the Economic and Political Weekly uses the words of Obama from his book, The Audacity of Hope, to speculate about what exactly we might have in store when Obama becomes the President of the US.