Archive
Making the Tax Code Safe for America’s Aristocracy
Can a democracy survive if its richest people can pass on to their heirs, generation after generation, the vast bulk of their fortunes? In the United States, that question first became a top-tier topic of debate back over a century ago. Huge fortunes were then...
Beyoncé’s Not-so-Super Move
On Super Bowl Sunday, 50 lucky fans will be on the field with R&B superstar Beyoncé during the halftime show, thanks to a Pepsi sweepstakes. Slightly less lucky winners will have their photos seen by millions during the halftime show, even though they won't be at...
Why does a university need a Chief Marketing Officer?
A new fad is sweeping across America's university campuses — and it's seriously goofy. This latest craze is not led by students making a cultural statement, but by top administrators trying to make a corporate one. It's called "rebranding," an attempt to modernize the...
Giving Away the Store
Sure, I'll move My business here; Whisper tax breaks, In my ear. There's a certain political irony surrounding WWE, that unrivaled producer of violence and misogyny for fun and profit. As a significant employer with 700 workers here in otherwise dowdy Connecticut, the...
Tar Sands Illustrated
This Week in OtherWords: January 9, 2013
This week in OtherWords, Sam Pizzigati explains how the recent budget deal will benefit the richest Americans, Jill Richardson calls on President Obama to take decisive action on climate change during his second term in office, and Donald Kaul follows up on his Dec....
Plotting an Uncivil War
At this point, it's far from certain whether the massacre of 20 Connecticut first-graders and six educators by a madman armed with an assault rifle in December will lead to meaningful gun control. But a month after the Dec. 14 bloodbath, the American far right is...
Let’s Pay Our Bills
Sometimes when I get a bill I don't feel like paying it. But I do, because I'm a responsible adult. If I don't pay my bills, I get in trouble. It's true for a family and for a government. Republicans in Congress are creating another manufactured default crisis....
On to the Next Cliff
The now infamous "fiscal cliff" Congress averted just hours before the New Year's deadline left most Americans with more questions than answers. Though the deal covers some of the most contentious tax issues, it leaves open the possibility that automatic spending cuts...
President Obama: End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
I remember the first mountaintop removal coal mining site I ever saw. Those images of Kayford Mountain in southern West Virginia have never left my mind — a barren landscape where there was once lush forest. And right around the destroyed site, homes where people were...
