Economy and Business
Omnibushed
At 8 p.m. on Monday January 13, there was no $1.1 trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2014. At least not one that the public or the vast majority of lawmakers had seen. Less than 70 hours later, large majorities in the House and Senate (332 to 94, and 72 to 26,...
Dr. King’s Nightmare
As we commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s 85th birthday, we’ve all come to know his dream. Above all else, he dreamed that one day this nation would rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created...
Making Out Like Bandits
It seems like almost every week brings news about Wall Street's latest sins. "JPMorgan Is Penalized $2 Billion Over Madoff," blared one recent New York Times headline, when the paper explained that Bernie Madoff, the infamous Ponzi scheme con artist, wheeled and...
Why Beating Back Inequality Won’t Be Easy
Half a century ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty." That war would soon make a real difference. In the decade following its 1964 launch, our official poverty rate dropped from 19 to 11.2 percent. But that progress stalled in the 1970s, and a...
Tip of the Iceberg
From Nurses and Students, a New Assault on Inequality
From the White House to the Vatican, everyone these days seems to be talking about income inequality. But our politics hasn't kept up. Concrete proposals that could actually narrow the gap between the rich and the rest of us haven't yet moved onto our public policy...
A Step the Government Can Take to Reduce Inequality
Americans don't like Big Business. And they don't like government waste. Put the two together, and we have a nightmare scenario: public money lining the pockets of corporate bigwigs. Even as federal government workers' pay is repeatedly targeted for reductions and...
The Trillion-Dollar Question
You have to consult Dictionary.com for the definition of “trillionaire.” Webster’s doesn’t yet recognize trillionaire as a word. But it will. If you’re under 60, America's first trillionaire will likely appear in your lifetime. And the recent budget deal in Congress...
NAFTA’s 20 Years of Unfulfilled Promises
Twenty years after it took effect, NAFTA has failed the vast majority of Mexicans. Of course, hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs have vanished since automotive and tech companies moved their production across the border in search of much lower wages. This was supposed...
Geithner Gets a Perch on Wall Street
Timmy Geithner has landed. After President Barack Obama's first-term Treasury Secretary resigned early this year, I lost track of him. But in November, Geithner reappeared, having spun himself through Washington's revolving door – whoosh, whoosh, whoosh – and flung...
