Economy and Business
Don’t Pave Our Potholes with Corporate Tax Cuts
Life was different in the 1990s. Back in ‘93, a lucky few used dial-up Internet to access one of 800 websites available worldwide. Smart phones were a distant dream. The TV dinosaur Barney had just started “edutaining” America’s children. And gas cost about $1.30 a...
Obama’s Kabuki Theater
The sales push behind Washington's latest "free-trade" agreement amounts to Kabuki theater. What's Kabuki? It's a 17th-century form of Japanese drama, featuring elaborate sets and costuming, rhythmic dialogue, and stylized acting and dancing. That pretty much sums up...
Nuts to First Class
I recently had the occasion to fly first class. As a poet and director of a small non-profit organization, this was a rare treat indeed. So why couldn’t I enjoy myself? It started with the warm nuts. I’d settled in with my free cocktail, having mastered the...
Fighting Inequality at the Local Level
Inequality isn’t a condition. It's a creation. Inequality is produced by thousands of decisions deliberately made by bosses, bankers, and big shots to siphon money and power from the many to the few. We see Wall Street and Washington doing this, but the deepening...
Mitch McConnell’s War on Iran — and Boeing?
Republicans in Congress may have failed to stop the landmark nuclear accord with Iran, but that doesn’t mean they’ve finished bloviating. As the news came in that President Barack Obama had secured enough votes to override any objections to the deal from Congress,...
Chicago’s Taxpayer-Funded Ode to Robber Barons
History, as the old adage goes, is written by the winners. Even though many "winners" are losers as human beings. For a clear example of this irony, check out the new national monument to corporate greed created by our Park Service in Chicago. It's on the site of what...
The Go-to Guy for Corporate Moochers
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker says he should be America's next president because he's a proven budget whacker. And yes, by golly, he’s dressed down teachers, slashed funding for higher education, busted unions, and gone after welfare recipients. He's the Koch...
The Only Game in Town
The stock market is down. It must be some crazy thing China has done. Those Communist countries just don’t understand how capitalism works. No, wait! The market just went up. Did China fix its capital markets already? Not really. More likely it’s that our Federal...
My Brush with Elon Musk
About five years ago, a close friend of mine and I had an idea for a television news program. As luck would have it, my friend had gone to high school with a guy who, at the time, just happened to be the president of NBC. We arranged to have drinks at a fancy hotel...
The Stock Market Breaks into Cold Sweats
