Economy and Business
A Farm Bill Lost in Never-Never Land
As financial stress rises, suicide hotlines are spreading across farm country. Four straight years of low income, rising debt, and now fights with major trading partners are taking their toll on farmers and rural communities. Worse, Congress seems to be pretending...
Fighting Back in the War on the Poor
What's the first thing that you think of when you think of Martin Luther King, Jr.? Perhaps the "I have a dream speech"? That’s what we learn about in school. But what was King’s dream at the end of his life? It was to build a massive movement of all poor people,...
How Elites Scam Americans Out of Housing
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Ben "I’ve Never Had to Worry about Affording Housing" Carson, wants to triple the rent that low-income American families pay for federally subsidized housing. Yep, this is the same guy who spent $31,000 of taxpayer...
Banks Defend Their Right to Be Dishonest
"Greed is good," proclaimed Gordon Gekko, lead character in a 1987 film lampooning the low ethics of the high finance barons of Wall Street. You might think that, surely, this Hollywood portrayal is a gross exaggeration. But check out an egregious example of...
My Advice for High School Graduates: Learn a Trade
In the classic 1960s movie The Graduate, a family friend offers Dustin Hoffman, the recent graduate, one word of advice: “plastics.” My advice for today’s high school graduates: “learn a trade.” Unfortunately, there's a historic stigma about “voc-ed,” the result of...
This Is the Wrong Time to Cut Back on Public Housing
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson has answered President Trump’s call to shrink the social safety net. Carson recently offered a proposal that would triple the rent some of America's poorest families have to pay before they get housing...
Bring Back May Day
Most of the world recognizes May 1 — May Day — as International Workers' Day. Here in one of the few countries that doesn't, it's worth pausing to ask how U.S. workers are doing. At an event last December, Fight for $15 organizer Terrence Wise recalled "going to bed...
Corporations Should Have to Hear From Their Owners
When we think about ways to pressure corporations to improve their practices, we may think of petitions, street demonstrations, boycotts, or social media campaigns. Yet there's another way that's been used effectively for decades. It involves those who stand to gain...
What ‘Toys R Us’ Teaches Us About Taxes
By the time you read this, your favorite hangout as a kid may have gone kaput. Toys “R” Us, the iconic global retailer, recently announced its impending demise after over a six-decade run. That sad news no doubt has many of us waxing nostalgic. All those aisles piled...
A Quiet Conspiracy of Billionaires
The Koch brothers are oil magnates and billionaire GOP funders. They believe that their great wealth entitles them to rule over the many. For decades, they've been running a surreptitious assault on the rules that protect the majority of us from their abuse. From...
