Issue 768

January 18 - 24, 2010

Obama: judgement day
One year on from the US president’s inauguration, we ask commentators, journalists and campaigners to assess his first 12 months: do they still have hope?  

Blind optimism
Author and commentator Barbara Ehrenreich explains why America’s positive-thinking industry is at the root of all the Noughties’ crises, from 9/11 to the global economic meltdown, and its role in Obama’s presidency

Zach’s bandwagon
Meet the 12-year-old boy in the running for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award who is dedicating his life to helping kids out of homelessness

Dying to be famous
Nick Drake’s been dead for 35 years but his posthumous popularity is as high as ever, with folk music’s glitterati on a tribute tour. We talk to his manager Joe Boyd about the folk singer’s tortured soul