Today's Memphis Commercial-Appeal has an article about the recent explosion of violence in Chicago. The purported reason--a breakdown in gang discipline--called to mind Sudhir Venkatesh's work on the dynamics of a poor Chicago neighborhood. My review of Venkatesh's excellent Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor is forthcoming in the Journal of Economics. Due to copyright restrictions, I can't post the review online, but I can quote the last paragraph:

A wise man once said: “Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.” While all social problems are no doubt shot through with moral culpability, perhaps the apparent moral failings of the urban poor are less important than the rules of the game that have created America’s urban nightmare. Perhaps the time has come to reexamine some of the policies that were implemented with good intentions but that appear to have produced disastrous consequences.