Archive
Where Are the Celebrations for Corporate America’s $100-Million Paychecks?
In 1930, an obscure lawsuit against Bethlehem Steel unearthed some corporate data that would quickly outrage Great Depression-era America. Bethlehem CEO W. R. Grace, Americans learned, had grabbed $1.6 million in personal compensation the year before. That revelation...
Child Labor Shouldn’t Haunt Halloween
I can't bring myself to be the Grinch who stole Halloween. I just can't, even though I write about healthy food. I even eat (mostly) healthy food. Friends and colleagues expect me to have something to say about Halloween. But how can anyone condemn an innocent day of...
You Won’t Love These McSubsidies
Let us all now bow before the god of free enterprise, whose awesomeness was revealed in a recent news release announcing that the divine managers of fast-food deity McDonald's achieved a profit of $1.5 billion in just three months this summer. Holy Big Mac! How does...
Every Day is May Day at McDonald’s
Where is the intellectual heir to Henry Ford, the great entrepreneur and inventor? He hated unions but famously boosted his workers' pay so they could afford to buy the cars they built. There are far more jobs now assembling burgers than cars. And the people who run...
The State of Worker Purchasing Power
Monsanto’s Absurdity Reaches New Heights
It was my privilege to go to Des Moines recently for a World Food Prize extravaganza recognizing Monsanto's work against global hunger. But wait, Monsanto is not a hunger-fighter. It's a predatory proliferator of proprietary and genetically engineered seeds. That's...
This Week in OtherWords: October 23, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Donald Kaul, Jo Comerford, and Ryan Alexander size up the temporary truce that ended the government shutdown and averted default. Kaul fans take note: In his column, he explains that he's taking some time off due to health reasons. Please send...
Washington’s “R” Word
On a recent Sunday, as Dallas and Washington revived their annual NFL football rivalry, they also landed in the middle of an escalating fight over the Washington football team's name. As part of its "Change the Mascot" campaign, the Oneida Indian Nation is running...
When Government Is Too Small
On a damp Friday morning, 11 days into the government shutdown, a few dozen truckers took to the Capital Beltway to tell lawmakers they were angry. They were protesting big government. Yet opinion polls showed that Americans opposed the government shutdown and were...
Gearing Up for Friday the 13th
It's been a long couple of weeks. Our government just wasted billions of dollars on a shutdown that accomplished nothing and dragged down economic growth as a close encounter with the debt ceiling loomed. And the deal that ended this impasse sets Washington up for...
