Economy and Business
What is this Country about Anymore?
Meet Mark. He's a 58 year old, college-educated veteran who lives in Oregon. He was laid off last September and has been unable to find work since. Mark's state unemployment benefits ran out in May. Since funding for the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation...
Putting a Pitchfork in It
Lloyd Blankfein is very concerned about income inequality. With his face reflecting both worry and perplexity, he recently called inequality "very destabilizing." Blankfein's concern doesn't come from the perspective of one experiencing inequality from the bottom of...
Hamster-Wheel Economics 101
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew comes across as somewhat optimistic about the rather lackluster national economy. "Evidence continues to mount that our economy is gaining traction," Lew recently said. "Nevertheless, we cannot escape the fact that millions of Americans...
Let’s Measure the Job Market the Way We Gauge Stock Market Health
Have you noticed that the Powers that Be employ a different standard for measuring the health of America's job market than they use for the stock market? They're currently telling us that the job market is "improving." What do they mean? Simply that the economy is...
Fighting for the Right to End Inequality
Fast-food workers in hundreds of cities across the country and the world went on strike in mid-May to demand higher pay and better working conditions. These workers targeted the richest and most powerful fast-food corporations such as McDonald's and Burger King....
Recipe for Ripoffs
President Barack Obama is a surprisingly devout disciple of so-called "free trade." During his first presidential bid he promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), indicating some concern over the U.S.-Canada-Mexico pact. A month after...
Success in Seattle
At last, our political leaders in Washington are taking action for low-wage workers and the middle class, striking a bold blow for America's historic value of economic fairness. Gosh, I hope you don't think I meant Washington, D.C. No, no. The same old corporate...
Walmart’s Top-to-Bottom Taxpayer Subsidies
Low-income families weren't the only ones hurt by cuts to food stamps last fall. Top Walmart executives also took a hit. The cutbacks ate into the discount giant's sales because so many of its low-income customers rely on this public assistance program to help pay for...
Putting Main Street in the Driver’s Seat
As we know, the barons of Wall Street haven't hesitated to raid our public treasury and haul off trillions of dollars worth of government bailouts and special tax breaks to subsidize their "free market" ventures. So guess who's the major force pushing policymakers to...
Too Big to Sue
The range of abuses and crimes committed by banks seems to grow without end. As soon as one predatory practice fades from the headlines, another appears moments later. Remember bank payday loans, a kind of short-term lending with annual interest rates of up to 365...
