Must Read

• James Fallows, The Tragedy of the American Military
• Joschka Fischer, Europe’s Make-or-Break Year
• Matt Taibbi, The NYPD’s ‘Work Stoppage’ Is Surreal
• Boston Globe, Why Market Basket employees are our 2014 Bostonians of the Year

Should Read

• Michiko Kakutani (NYT), Human Costs of the Forever Wars, Enough to Fill a Bookshelf
• Jared Bernstein, The House cuts funding for the IRS. That’s a big mistake.
• Dean Baker, The Trade Agreement Pinatas
• Robert Reich, The Government Problem

Economics

• Jared Bernstein, Guideposts on the way back to Factville: Graphics from 2014 that point the way forward.
• Economic Policy Institute, The Top 10 Charts of 2014
• Brad DeLong, Try Everything

Politics

• Jared Bernstein, Without a currency chapter, the TPP should not be ratified.
• Jesse Byrnes, NSA reports detail decade’s worth of privacy violations

Foreign Affairs

• Amanda Taub, Who is Alexei Navalny, and why does he scare Putin so much?
• Bloomberg News, Ukraine Lawmakers Annul Non-Aligned Status in NATO Move

Environment

• Eli Rabett, We Have Not Inherited the Earth From Our Ancestors, We Are Stealing It From Our Children
• Ryan Koronowski, Pope Francis Expected To Instruct One Billion Catholics To Act On Climate Change
• Jeff Spross, Here’s The State-Based Climate Solution That Doesn’t Need Congress

Education

• Richard Perez-Pena (NYT), Colleges Reinvent Classes to Keep More Students in Science

Science

• Andrew Gelman, Statistical methods as pocket tools
• Opli.net, Yellowstone’s Thermal Springs — Their Colors Unveiled

Health

• The Complete Patient, It’s Everywhere: MIT Scientist Presents Dire Portrait of Damage from Monsanto’s Roundup
• Michael Kimmelman (NYT), In Haiti, Battling Disease With Open-Air Clinics

Culture

• Carey Goldberg, Killing Moms Softly With Half Days
• Kevin Drum, 16 New Year’s Predictions That Are Not For 2015
• Bill Cunningham (NYT), Garden Hideaway

Last thing:  This is college football bowl season.   I don’t watch football any more but I remember this goal line stand vividly:  1979 Sugar Bowl, Alabama vs Penn State