Wal-Mart Scrooges Us All

Wal-Mart Scrooges Us All

Gosh, time flies when it’s pushed along by a jet stream of greed. It seems like only yesterday that Wal-Mart announced, with much self-congratulatory fanfare, that the super-rich retailing colossus wasn’t a scrooge after all. Indeed, while the...
The Real Public Health Threat

The Real Public Health Threat

As airlines, cruise ships, and hospitals cope with waves of Ebola jitters, I’m wondering whether the panic the deadly virus is inducing will distort Halloween traditions this year. No, I’m not talking about Ebola-related costumes. There are real...
Paying for Cheap Chocolate

Paying for Cheap Chocolate

One Halloween, my husband persuaded our kids to give away most of the candy they’d just collected while trick-or-treating. They were preschoolers and the house we were renting then had previously drawn teens with haunted tours. We’d run out of candy when a...
Here Come the Rain and Drought

Here Come the Rain and Drought

What is it about natural disasters and irony? Just as local authorities in Detroit were denying thousands of people access to running water, the bankrupt city experienced an epic downpour. More than 4.5 inches of rain pounded Motown in mid-August, causing $1.2 billion...
America’s Grand Fortunes Go Overboard

America’s Grand Fortunes Go Overboard

Imagine yourself part of the typical American family. Your household would have, the Federal Reserve reported in September, a net worth of $81,200. That’s not a whole lot of money. But half of America’s households would actually have less wealth than you...