Brookings Today, 12/2/14

A roundup of some of the content published today at Brookings.

• Are gridlock and gloom the new normal in politics? Isabel Sawhill discusses Amitai Etzioni’s new book, The New Normal, which explores why voters, who seem to have what they want (conservative policies), are dissatisfied with the government’s performance.
• Innovation in Munich. Mark Muro discusses Germany’s successful innovation system, and wonders, “What would happen if the virtues of Silicon Valley and Munich were fused?”
• Ferguson, “amnesty,” and America’s new racial make-up. In the wake of recent headlines about Ferguson and immigration, William Frey explains why these are “flashpoints of a sustained demographic transformation that is now at work and cannot be stopped.”
• Is political risk killing Greece’s economy? Theodore Pelagidis writes on Greece’s radical left “Syriza” party and how it “remains a serious political risk both to Europe and to Greece.”
• The EB-5 visa program for immigrant investors. Audrey Singer explains the EB-5 visa program that provides green cards to foreign nationals who invest in economic development in the U.S.
• A buffer zone between Turkey and Syria? Elizabeth Ferris was interviewed by Syria Deeply about the prospects for a humanitarian buffer zone.

Charmaine Crutchfield contributed to this post.