Economy and Business
Tidings of Discomfort for the Poor
Where Are the Celebrations for Corporate America’s $100-Million Paychecks?
In 1930, an obscure lawsuit against Bethlehem Steel unearthed some corporate data that would quickly outrage Great Depression-era America. Bethlehem CEO W. R. Grace, Americans learned, had grabbed $1.6 million in personal compensation the year before. That revelation...
Every Day is May Day at McDonald’s
Where is the intellectual heir to Henry Ford, the great entrepreneur and inventor? He hated unions but famously boosted his workers' pay so they could afford to buy the cars they built. There are far more jobs now assembling burgers than cars. And the people who run...
When Government Is Too Small
On a damp Friday morning, 11 days into the government shutdown, a few dozen truckers took to the Capital Beltway to tell lawmakers they were angry. They were protesting big government. Yet opinion polls showed that Americans opposed the government shutdown and were...
Gearing Up for Friday the 13th
It's been a long couple of weeks. Our government just wasted billions of dollars on a shutdown that accomplished nothing and dragged down economic growth as a close encounter with the debt ceiling loomed. And the deal that ended this impasse sets Washington up for...
How to Steer Our Rolls-Royce World onto a Smoother Road
The folks at Rolls-Royce have just opened a brand-new dealership — in the poverty-stricken Philippines. This nation of nearly 100 million people now hosts 334 deep pockets worth at least $50 million, more than enough, the Rolls-Royce CEO noted earlier this month in...
Spinning Failure into Gold
What amazing alchemists Wall Street bankers are! They can turn failure into gold and reform into business as usual. These sorcerers have pulled off both tricks right in front of us since their 2007 collapse. They turned that gross failure into an ongoing...
Worker Rip-Offs in the Reagan Building
How's this for irony? Ronald Reagan — worshipped as the supreme deity by small-government, anti-spending zealots — not only has a government office building in Washington named for him, but it's the biggest and costliest one built to date. The only face-saving factor...
Worse than Watergate
The U.S. Supreme Court is mulling a case that could end up giving America's wealthy a perpetual green light to contribute as much as they want directly to politicians and political parties. Credit Shaun McCutcheon, an Alabama businessman who owns an electrical...
This Political Game Jeopardizes the Economy
Shortly before the first government shutdown in 17 years, President Barack Obama addressed the Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference in Washington. He said the same thing he's been telling the nation ever since, "We will not negotiate whether or not...
