Economy and Business
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...
Five Tax Myths Debunked
Tax Day has come and gone. Maybe you have a big bill from Uncle Sam or maybe you got a fat refund. Either way, it’s easy to get lost in the noise from pundits and politicians who thrive on the tax code's complexity. This is made even harder by the right-wing groups...
Another Counterproductive Assault on Food Stamps
Once again, Republicans are taking aim at poor people. What is it this time? Adding a stricter work requirement to receive what used to be known as food stamps. (Today it's known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but that just doesn't have the same...
It’s Time to Cut the Contractors Loose
How much of your paycheck do you plan to hand over to corporate Pentagon contractors this year? The average American taxpayer will have paid $14,520 in federal income taxes in 2017. And that’s not even including the taxes that every working person pays to take care of...
‘Modernization’ Is Media Code for Military Build-Up
One of the most effective rhetorical tools in normalizing massive military budgets is to treat spending billions — and sometimes trillions — of dollars as something one has to do in order to be "modern." "Modernization" is, after all, an attractive label. Who doesn’t...
Betsy DeVos Needs an Education on Ethics
Question: What do you get when you combine ignorance, imperiousness, and incompetence? Answer: Betsy DeVos. She's Donald Trump's multi-billionaire education secretary, who hates public education and loves the plutocratic idea of corporate rule over democracy. DeVos is...
