Economy and Business
Coddling the Rich
Question: How much did Congress save taxpayers last year when it cut food stamp benefits for 16 million poor children? Answer: Less than the windfall Congress is trying to bestow on a few of the richest American families by ending the federal estate tax. The House has...
Letting Deadly Bosses off the Hook
They say there's honor among thieves. I say: That depends on the thieves. Your common street thief, yes — but not those princely CEOs of corporate larceny. The elites in the top suites are pickpockets, swindlers, thugs, and scoundrels, routinely committing mass...
How Can We Serve Our Public Servants?
Back in my 20s, I had a modest dream: By my 40s, I hoped, I'd be able to pay off my student debt. I’d even give some of my hard-earned money to my mom and rent a nice apartment. Maybe I'd get a dog, too. And I wanted to do it while making a difference for...
The Great Fountain-Pen Robbery
Even the word "greed" isn’t negative enough to characterize the all-out assault on workers by today's corporate elite. From offshoring jobs to busting unions, and from slashing wages to looting pensions, avaricious executives and wealthy investors are taking...
The Divestment Dividend
As Earth Day approached, fossil-fuel divestment actions rattled college campuses large and small. Targets ranged from Harvard University’s $36-billion endowment to the University of Mary Washington’s $46-million nest egg. That’s only natural: Students, professors, and...
Odd Bedfellows, Lying Together
Come one, come all. Step right up and buy your ticket for a ride on the splendiferous, phantasmagoric, and miraculous Trans-Pacific Partnership! The TPP isn’t some sort of futuristic flying machine. It’s just another global trade scam coming at us like a volcanic...
Fast Tracking the TPP
Making Science History
We've all seen those touchy-feely TV ads with baby deer, butterflies, and sylvan streams — claiming that some big corporate polluter is nature's best friend. There's a word for such hokum: greenwashing. Leave it to the Koch brothers, however, to invent a whole new...
America’s Billionaires Owe You a Thank You Note
This tax season, America’s billionaires are toasting you, the ordinary taxpayer. That’s because you’re the one picking up the tab for our nation’s ailing infrastructure of roads, bridges, and rail transport. You’re also footing the bill for military forces, disaster...
Saving Coal Country
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell recently took the extraordinary step of calling on governors to ignore Washington’s Clean Power Plan, an EPA mandate to curb carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. "Declining to go along with the administration’s legally...
