Economy and Business
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...
A New Front in the CEO Pay Wars
Have you heard about Domino's Pizza CEO J. Patrick Doyle? He pocketed $43 million over the last three years running an operation that stiffs low-wage workers and rakes in taxpayer subsidies. That news prompted the New York Post to open its coverage with a rather...
Striking Gold for Doing Wall Street’s Bidding
First, Wall Street's government bailout restored the banksters who wrecked our economy to full prosperity. Now, it's paying off very handsomely for the bank overseers who orchestrated the bailout. For example, as chairman of the Federal Reserve for eight years, Ben...
Scrimping on Women’s Pay
Republicans in the Senate blocked a vote on the minimum wage earlier this month — no surprise there. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee was the only Republican who stood aside. But don't believe the issue is dead. Democrats will make sure that raising the minimum wage...
Why Tea Partiers Should Back Minimum Wage Raise
If tea-partying Republicans were politically strategic animals, they'd support President Barack Obama's call to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. I know that sounds insane. But as that GOP faction struggles against the Republican Party's establishment, perhaps...
Derailing the Dynasty Train
Don't feel bad if you were busy and missed the buzz around the new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It's not every day that a 685-page book about wealth inequality written by a French economist lands on best-seller lists next to Danielle Steele's steamy new...
