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A Quick Look at Bloomberg News's Opinion Section for March 22, 2012

Well, the View editors feel that Wednesday will be remembered as a blue day
for Britain, a sinning time for Saints and a crisis of confusion in China.

Let's start across the pond. "The budget announced Wednesday by Britain’s
Conservative government was less a change of economic direction than an
exercise in political theater," write the editors. "The good news is that
the outlook is no longer deteriorating. For the first time since coming to
office in 2010, the Tories didn’t have to explain how worsening growth
projections had wrecked their plans. Chancellor of the Exchequer George
Osborne could have simply confirmed his previous revenue and growth targets,
but in Britain budgets call for melodrama. So he enraged the Labour
opposition by cutting the top rate of income tax from 50 percent to 45
percent."[2] Link.
Links:
2. http://bloom.bg/GDO0x1

Meanwhile, we have a martyr in the home of the muffaletta: "After leading
the New Orleans Saints from the post-Hurricane Katrina doldrums to a Super
Bowl victory in 2010, Sean Payton was widely heralded as America’s Coach.
Now, facing a one-year suspension over so-called Bountygate, many feel he’s
become America’s Scapegoat: the one taking the fall because National
Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell is “shocked, shocked” to find
violence being rewarded in this inherently brutal sport. Although there’s
some legitimacy to this view, we think Goodell made the right call."
[3]Link.
As for China, the fall of Communist Party bigwig Bo Xilai wasn't what many
Westerners took it to be. "To hear some tea-leaf readers tell it, the
high-flying Bo was the creator of the 'Chongqing model' a program that
melded support for state-owned enterprises and measures to help the poor
with a relentless campaign against crime and corruption and a rekindling of
revolutionary fervor," explain the editors. "When his comeuppance came, it
represented a victory for reformist liberals led by outgoing Premier Wen
Jiabao, proof that even a 'princeling' -- in this case, the son of Bo Yibo,
one of Mao Zedong’s revolutionary comrades -- could be brought to
heel. Although no tears should be shed at Bo’s downfall, that narrative is
flawed. First, Bo was more an opportunist than an ideologue." [4]Link.
Links:
3. http://bloom.bg/GKdmbN
4. http://bloom.bg/GEuwna

Then again, many Chinese -- especially those using the microblogging site
Sina Weibo -- are also a tad confused about it all, explains World View
contributor Adam Minter: "Some suggested that a coup d’etat had taken place
Monday night near Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Communist Party's leadership
compound. This rumor spread rapidly, in various forms (and forums), online
and offline ... Several claimed they’d heard shots near Chang’an Avenue.
Meanwhile, Weibo users, and The Epoch Times, a U.S.-based newspaper with
connections to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, circulated photos
of military vehicles on Chang’an Avenue that were allegedly taken during the
alleged coup." [5]Link.
Links:
5. http://bloom.bg/GKOgoE

Also, columnist Caroline Baum thinks Ben Bernanke might be facing a coup of
his own; Amity Shlaes looks at dorm-roomz gone wild; and op-ed contributor
Scott Turow draws his light saber against the Darth Vader of the book world,
Amazon.com.

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