Economy and Business
Trump’s No Outlier
There are those who would have you believe that Donald Trump is an aberration among Republican presidential contenders — the black sheep uncle who shows up half-drunk at family gatherings, insults the guests, scandalizes the women, and otherwise brings dishonor to the...
Greece’s Crisis Is More Twisted Than Ever
In case you missed it, Greece is in for more turmoil. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras recently resigned and called for new elections as his party struggles with internal dissent. It's the latest installment in Greece's ongoing battle against harsh debt repayment...
How Not to Give Employees a Raise
Some days, I get an irresistible compulsion to tear out my hair. My latest outbreak was triggered by a New York Times opinion piece by Peter Georgescu, the former chairman of the giant PR outfit Young & Rubicam. He issued a clarion call for his corporate peers to...
Rising CEO Pay Levels
Do the Rich Rule America?
Is America's political system controlled by a small financial elite? One former president thinks so. Almost 40 years after he was elected, former President Jimmy Carter commented recently that our political system is now “an oligarchy with unlimited political...
Shielding Wall Street from the Ravages of Bigotry
Phil Gramm, the former right-wing senator from Texas, has surprised me. I assumed he had zero charitable instincts. In office, he kept trying to kill safety net programs, such as food assistance: "We're the only nation in the world where all our poor people are fat,"...
A Welcome New Yardstick for Measuring CEO Greed
Should corporations in America have to annually reveal how much they pay their most typical workers compared to how much they pay their CEOs? In 2010, Congress embraced that idea. Lawmakers plugged into the landmark Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer...
Running on Greed
Donald Trump alienated millions of voters with his ugly attacks on Mexican immigrants and John McCain's war record. But he rocketed to the top of GOP presidential polls anyway. Is Trump's racism driving this surge? Maybe. But I'd argue it's something else: his...
Holder Proves You Can Go Home Again
Novelist Thomas Wolfe famously wrote: "You can't go home again." But Eric Holder has proven him wrong. Holder, who served as President Barack Obama's attorney general until stepping down earlier this year, recently returned to his old home — Covington & Burling....
Co-Branding America’s Wonders
While Americans celebrate the 100th anniversary of our National Park Service, America's so-called "leaders" are aggressively converting these jewels of the common good into just another corporate cash cow. This commercialization started with "co-branding" agreements,...
