Illegal Interns

Illegal Interns

It’s time we ditched the term “internship.” The word’s greatest value to employers resides in its vagueness. Take, for example, the production of the film Black Swan, for which I worked as an accounting clerk and a post-production assistant,...
We Won the War on Poverty, then Lost the Peace

We Won the War on Poverty, then Lost the Peace

When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty in January 1964, the poverty rate was over 19 percent. By 1972 it had fallen to less than 12 percent, and it stayed there for most of the 1970s. Anyone who says we lost the war on poverty is flat out ignoring...
A Bold New Call for a ‘Maximum Wage’

A Bold New Call for a ‘Maximum Wage’

How about taking a moment this Labor Day to reflect about those Americans who earn the least for their labor? These Americans — workers paid the federal minimum wage — are now making $7.25 an hour. On paper, they’re making the same wage they made in...
Percolate-Up Economics

Percolate-Up Economics

Washington keeps handing massive bailouts to Wall Street giants and multibillion-dollar annual subsidies to Big Oil. Those giveaways certainly boost the 1-percenters’ bottom lines, but they do nothing to perk up America’s grassroots economy. And...