Economy and Business
The Trillion-Dollar Question
You have to consult Dictionary.com for the definition of “trillionaire.” Webster’s doesn’t yet recognize trillionaire as a word. But it will. If you’re under 60, America's first trillionaire will likely appear in your lifetime. And the recent budget deal in Congress...
NAFTA’s 20 Years of Unfulfilled Promises
Twenty years after it took effect, NAFTA has failed the vast majority of Mexicans. Of course, hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs have vanished since automotive and tech companies moved their production across the border in search of much lower wages. This was supposed...
Geithner Gets a Perch on Wall Street
Timmy Geithner has landed. After President Barack Obama's first-term Treasury Secretary resigned early this year, I lost track of him. But in November, Geithner reappeared, having spun himself through Washington's revolving door – whoosh, whoosh, whoosh – and flung...
How to Become a Billionaire
Meet the Greediest Women of 2013
I always agonize while compiling a list of the 10 greediest Americans of the year. Every holiday season, I find so many candidates deserving this distinction that bankers alone could fill this list. Or fast-food CEOs. Male masters of the universe again dominate this...
Don’t Deck the Halls for This One
Channeling the spirit of the holiday season, key lawmakers managed to set aside dysfunction and take the first step in a small budget deal for the 2014 fiscal year. Back in October, Congress ended the 16-day government shutdown that cost this country 120,000 jobs by...
Flashback: You Can’t Save Social Security by Destroying It
One of my favorite stories of 2004 concerned Senate Majority Leader William Frist and his campaign fund. Realizing he had an excess of funds, he invested in the stock market. He lost about $450,000 between 2000 and 2004. You would think that would have taught...
Exposing Secret Trade Pacts
NAFTA. CAFTA-DR. TPP. TTIP. That numbing spoonful of alphabet soup represents four so-called free trade pacts that benefit global capital at the expense of everyone else. The North American Free Trade Agreement came first, and NAFTA will soon mark its 20th...
The Fake Debt Crisis
As the American people tried to celebrate last year's holiday season while mourning the loss of 26 lives in Newtown, Connecticut, Congress and the White House were duking it out over the "fiscal cliff." Our leaders reached a temporary solution on New Year's Day that...
We’re Not Broke — We’ve Been Robbed
With the Friday the 13th December deadline for a federal budget deal, the cries of "we're broke," and "we can't afford to keep spending," are ringing again. But we're not broke and acting like we are is making us poorer. One of the biggest common misunderstandings is...
