Economy and Business
The Haves vs the Have-It-Alls
In the spirit of holiday harmony and goodwill toward all, I say it's time for you working stiffs to extend your hands in a gesture of solidarity with America's millionaires. Why? Because we now share a common cause: inequality. You don't hear much about it, but...
For Retail Workers, Time Is Money
In late November, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a Retail Workers' Bill of Rights — the first law of its kind in the nation. The focus of the new law might surprise you. A bill of rights for workers is probably about wages, right? Think again. This new...
An Overdue Fix to Overtime
There are a lot of ways that businesses are squeezing worker pay. Here’s a big one. On the one hand, millions of Americans are stuck in low-paying part-time jobs that don't offer them enough hours. On the other, millions more are now routinely forced to work over 40...
Fueling Corporate Welfare
Getting something for nothing is a pretty sweet deal — at least if you’re the one getting something. Not so much if you’re the one receiving nothing in exchange. Oil and gas companies are extracting gas from federal lands and paying nothing for much of it, according...
Too Big to Ignore
Three years after the Occupy movement first directed long-overdue attention to the scourge of inequality in America, the gulf between rich and poor has gotten too big for even the Federal Reserve to ignore. As Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen recently pointed out,...
Obama: Don’t Sell Out America’s Women
President Barack Obama has insisted up and down that he's willing to work with the Republicans who are taking over the Senate. He proved it during his recent visit to Beijing, where he urged world leaders to come to agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — a...
Show Up on Thanksgiving or Get Fired
Most Americans — from the Obama family in the White House to my little family in Texas — will get a much-deserved break from work on Thanksgiving Day. But millions of others won't. Understandably, firefighters, police, and hospital workers will stay on the job. After...
Does This Definition Make Me Look Rich?
How much income do America’s households take in? How much do they have left after taxes? Do federal taxes leave the nation less or more unequal? Questions don’t get much more basic than these. Or more complicated. How, for instance, do we define income? Anything...
Chief Tax-Dodging Officers
Republican and Democratic leaders don’t often see eye to eye on taxes. But surprisingly, corporate tax reform looks like one area where there might actually be some potential for bipartisan action in Washington. This should be good news, since our corporate tax system...
High-Status Sad Sacks
Here's something that might not have occurred to you: It's not easy being rich. Well, yes, there are all those things that money can buy to alleviate the burden of fabulous wealth — things like servants, summers in Provence, private jets, and such. But as an article...
