What We’re Reading

Erica Alini

• A weekend in Green Point, NYC, led me to wonder: Why is an old industrial suburb becoming the trendiest place in town? The answer came from the blog of a Georgetown Ph.D. student in Cairo. Western fascination with urban decay seems to have made it all the way to Egypt.

Preeti Aroon

• Ghana aims to avoid the ‘oil curse’. Blake Lambert in the Christian Science Monitor. Oil has just been discovered off the coast of Ghana. But is this apparent blessing really a curse in disguise? This black gold could turn out to be fool’s gold, just as it has for other African countries (as discussed in a recent FP Web exclusive by Stephan Faris).

Mike Boyer

• In this case, What I’m Watching: CNBC’s Jim Cramer lashes out (video) against Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for having “no idea” how bad the meltdown in the housing market is. It’s must-see TV.

Blake Hounshell

• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Street Gangs (But Didn’t Know Whom to Ask), chez Freakonomics Blog. If you read one blog post today, read this interview with Sudhir Venkatesh, an expert on crack gangs at Columbia University.

Prerna Mankad

• Career women in Japan find a blocked path in the International Herald Tribune. Want to know why Japan is facing a demographic crisis? Martin Fackler’s article is a critical place to start.

Carolyn O’Hara

• The Black Sites, by Jane Mayer in this week’s New Yorker. Makes The Bourne Ultimatum look tame by comparison.