Many Americans – conservatives, liberals and centrists – are dismayed by Barack Obama's first year. Republicans call Mr Obama a tax and spend liberal. Progressives say he surrendered to corporate interests, and his foreign policy is a continuation of George W. Bush by other means. Independents feel let down because Mr Obama said he would bridge the partisan divide and unite the country. Except for uniting left and right in disappointment, he failed. [The Financial Times]

2010: A Fictional Year in Review
After the traumatic events of 2009, the fact that 2010 was a "year of surprises" is itself a surprise. The number of "Black Swan" surprises this year was simply unprecedented. "Even I was surprised," said hedge fund manager and author Nassim Taleb. [Yahoo Finance]

10 jobs that will get a raise in 2010
Farewell and good riddance to 2009, a year in which a whopping 85% of big companies did away with across-the-board annual merit raises, according to a survey by Deloitte & Touche. Surprisingly, executives fared somewhat worse than the rank and file, with 66% of senior managers seeing either no increase in their pay or a salary reduction, versus 54% of employees in the same boat. [Fortune.com]

The Boomers Broke It; Can Gen X-ers Fix It?
The Baby Boom generation traded the early revolutionary impulses for a status quo of greed, selfishness and temper tantrums. Now it is up to us, their children, to rescue their legacy. [The Root]