The July Cover (image) Recipe for a Depression The conventional wisdom is that the federal budget deficit is a very bad thing. But what if it is the attempt to eliminate the federal budget deficit--in a climate of falling wages, rising unemployment, rising consumer debt, and rigidly engineered disinflation--that turns out to be a very bad thing? Articles by Thomas I. Palley and Robert A. Levine raise this disturbing question. Gap Politics The "gender gap," the author writes, is not a single, static thing. It is a political phenomenon whose benefits, depending on issues and circumstances, can accrue to either the left or the right. by Steven Stark Express Yourself: It's Later Than You Think Confused when it comes to modern art? Herewith a glossary. by Brad Holland

Reports Notes & Comment: Welcome to Our Tomb Everybody except the Grants gets a chance to have a say. by Richard Rubin Technology: High Resolution, Unresolved Private companies will soon have their own "spy" satellites. by Mary Graham Foreign Affairs: Germania Irredenta Germans still yearn for lost lands--and their government is not discouraging them. by Hans Koning Fiction & Poetry He Has Lived in Many Houses A poem by Thomas Lux Spring A short story by Mark Walters All-American Sestina A poem by Florence Cassen Mayers Browse and search The Atlantic's online archive. The seahorse symbol indicates that an article is supplemented with additional Atlantic material, such as related articles, audio, or special online sidebars. Note: some material from the print magazine is not available online, at the request of the authors.		Arts & Leisure Travel: Buffed and Polished As spas have proliferated, they have also diversified. A guide to exercising your options. by Deborah Fallows Music: Like Young The "young lions" of jazz lack the dark corners and disfigurements of character that separate great music from merely good. by Francis Davis See "Jazz in the '90s: Bebop and Beyond?" a special companion to this article. Art: Living-Room Galleries The newest rage in New York art circles--the reborn salon--is a child of necessity as much as of taste. by Carol Kino Books The Latest Fashion in Irrationality Books on angels and other forms of popular spirituality. by Wendy Kaminer Robert Penn McInerney The Last of the Savages, by Jay McInerney by Charles Thompson Brief Reviews by Phoebe-Lou Adams Other Departments 745 Boylston Street Contributors Letters (Send a letter to the editor.) The July Almanac Word Court by Barbara Wallraff
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