Economy and Business
The Capital of Inequality
Politicians inside the Beltway that circles Washington, D.C., most of us would agree, don't understand the challenges of daily life that average Americans face outside the Beltway. But these days, if you really want to understand everyday life in our deeply unequal...
The High Cost of Free Trade
Tidy rip-offs From free trade; For which we So dearly paid. The Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement, being negotiated in secret even as we speak, has a lot to say about worker rights and environmental protections. This pact, which is shaping up between the...
Obama 2.0: Yes We Can Raise Taxes
Republicans seem to have something against tax increases. I get that. But it's still not crazy to think we can win some important revenue battles during Obama 2.0. And given this country's pressing needs – from repairing our infrastructure to rehiring teachers – it...
The Real Obama Emerges Again
If you're having political déjà vu as Obama's second term in the White House gets underway, you're not alone. The supposedly populist candidate — who won re-election promising to tax the rich, protect Social Security, and make the economy fair — has morphed back into...
Making the Tax Code Safe for America’s Aristocracy
Can a democracy survive if its richest people can pass on to their heirs, generation after generation, the vast bulk of their fortunes? In the United States, that question first became a top-tier topic of debate back over a century ago. Huge fortunes were then...
Giving Away the Store
Sure, I'll move My business here; Whisper tax breaks, In my ear. There's a certain political irony surrounding WWE, that unrivaled producer of violence and misogyny for fun and profit. As a significant employer with 700 workers here in otherwise dowdy Connecticut, the...
Let’s Pay Our Bills
Sometimes when I get a bill I don't feel like paying it. But I do, because I'm a responsible adult. If I don't pay my bills, I get in trouble. It's true for a family and for a government. Republicans in Congress are creating another manufactured default crisis....
When Uncle Sam Pays Dividends
Who won the New Year's Eve budget standoff? In one sense, everyone scored a "victory." The deal that Congress eventually blessed includes scores of provisions. Most Americans can point to at least one that works to their financial favor. But the real winners don't...
Obama’s Inauguration Sells Out
He did it. Unfortunately. Sadly. Disappointingly. President Barack Obama, reversing his own honorable precedent for his first inaugural, has chosen this time to have corporations pay for his second round of big shindigs. This multimillion-dollar infusion of corporate...
The Dropped Ball
Millions of Americans watched the ball drop on New Year's Eve. The glitzy one in Times Square symbolized joy and hope for the New Year. Just a few hundred miles to the south, Congress dropped another ball — one that no doubt sent champagne glasses clinking among the...
