Economy and Business
Requiem for a Wrecking Ball
Aubrey McClendon’s 2013 Chevy Tahoe ignited after he slammed into an Oklahoma City overpass at high speed. Flames charred the brazen oil and gas executive’s body so badly that medical experts relied on dental records to verify that he'd died. One day before McClendon...
Paying for Low-Wage Pollution
Imagine if a corporation set up shop in your community and immediately dumped toxic sludge in your local waterways and buried radioactive waste next to your biggest playground. You and your neighbors, I bet, would demand full compensation from that corporation to pay...
Al Gore Moves to the Bright Side
Remember An Inconvenient Truth? In addition to proving that people will pay good money to watch a movie costarring Al Gore and a PowerPoint presentation, that Oscar-winning documentary elevated climate change to an issue that everyone should fret about. In the decade...
The Billionaire Bankrolling the Latest Trade Deal Push
A New York Times article about Barack Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership opened with this sunny headline: “Trade Pact Would Lift U.S. Incomes, Study Says.” But wait, a study by whom? It comes from the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics....
Cracking Down on Abusive Debt Collectors
Have you ever picked up your phone to find an aggressive voice on the other end demanding payments on a debt you know nothing about? You’re far from alone. Once you’re in the sights of a debt collector, the impact on your life can be devastating: Your wages can be...
America’s Hollow Paradises
Think back to your favorite vacation. Wouldn’t it be delightful if that trip never ended? Imagine moving to that fantastic destination town, finding a job and a house, and living the dream. Even if you had to wait tables or stock store shelves, who needs a desk job...
Drowning the Oil Industry
With oil cheaper than bottled water, the average American driver saved $540 at the pump last year. But oil prices are also battering Alaska’s economy, rattling the stock market, and leaving thousands of workers in states like North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas jobless....
Turning Our Backs
With the winter winds of January came a flurry of reports that several states were moving to cut thousands of people from their Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, or “food stamp") rolls. In New Jersey, for example, Governor Chris Christie pulled the...
Zuckerberg’s Get-Away Car
Let us now praise “Lord Zuckerberg, The Magnificent!” Mark Zuckerberg, the wunderkind of Silicon Valley who co-founded Facebook and amassed roughly a gabillion dollars in personal wealth, is now being hailed as a new giant of American altruism. This started after the...
Digging Up a Mountain of Debt
For the first time in more than 30 years, the federal government has decided to hold off on authorizing new leases for coal mining on federal land. It will undertake a review to see whether taxpayers are getting a fair deal while assessing the program’s environmental...
