Editor's Page

We are living in an age of austerity and, together with most Europeans and the Japanese, will probably have to endure it for some time to come. The truly wretched "compromise" on the debt limit that Barack Obama agreed to last August only underscored the political weakness of those of us who anxiously defend the welfare state and dream that, one day, it might provide a decent living and excellent health care for every wage earner, while also helping to reverse the heating of the planet.