Economy and Business
Not Lovin’ It
McDonald's is scrambling, and I'm not talking about eggs. Your know your business has what image consultants call "quality perception issues" when your public relations team is fielding such questions as: "Does McDonald's beef contain worms?" Thornier yet for the...
Hair-Raising Hypocrisy
As messed up as it sounds, in the unending struggle for justice, there is such thing as a "positive negative." This occurs when you win a struggle that you never should have had to deal with in the first place. A prime example is presented by the long saga of Isis...
The Next Big Progressive Battle
On New Year’s Day, 20 states raised their minimum wages. That leaves a lot of states that aren’t increasing the minimum wage — along with the federal government. Even some of those employees who are getting increases don’t have much to celebrate. Workers in Florida...
Inequality Is Costing Us Big-Time
Have you ever wondered what inequality costs the average American family? That is, what price do we pay — in actual dollars and cents — for tolerating an economy fixated on pumping our treasure to the top? That question has no simple answer. How much, for instance,...
When Bootstraps Won’t Work
Obama Strengthens His Backbone
Republican lawmakers are setting the stage for a disastrous two years in Congress marked by manufactured crisis after crisis and ignoring the needs of working families. Fortunately, President Barack Obama is showing some much-needed backbone by refusing to cave to the...
Who Polices the Pay Police?
One difference between top executives and worker bees is that those at the top can lower the pay of those down below while simultaneously raising their own. If you wonder what's causing America's rapidly widening income gap, there it is. Technically, CEOs do not set...
Fight for $15 in ’15
Looking for some good news on the job front? This should be a big year for the "Fight for $15," a national movement to turn low-wage jobs into "living wage" jobs that pay enough to lift workers out of poverty. The movement got a big push in December when pro-living...
Tilting at Turbines
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and several of John D. Rockefeller’s heirs have some investment advice for you. They want you, your college or alma mater, your local firefighters’ pension fund, and all other investors — big and...
A Corporate Coup in College Football
Growing up in Texas, I learned that God and guns were important, but football — well, football was the real religion. So I can understand the hyperbolic exuberance of a radio hypester in Montgomery, Alabama, who declared that the December 20 Camellia Bowl was “going...
