Economy
America's Rich Just Scored A Triple Jackpot
America’s awesomely affluent don’t have to place any bets to pull in the windfalls. They’re essentially hitting jackpots on a daily basis, as a “trifecta” of timely just-released research reminds us.
American Democracy is Not a Charity Case
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, America’s fourth-richest person, finally admitted that no one deserves to accumulate as much wealth as he has. But hey, he says, at least he plans to give a lot of his $69.6 billion net worth to charity. That’s nice. But it’s not enough...
Pennsylvania Is Ready For A Just, Clean-Energy Future
Pennsylvania is ready for a just, clean-energy future. Ever since 1859, when Edwin Drake ushered in the modern era’s addiction to fossil fuels when he struck “rock oil” in Titusville, our state has been at the front lines of the extraction industry’s booms and busts....
College For All Means Dignity For All
My name is Chris Simmons, and I want to tell you why we need - I need - Free College For All now. I grew up in Newton, Iowa, a small city east of Des Moines. For a hundred years, Newton was the “washing machine capital of the world.” It was home to the Maytag...
Wealth That Concentrates Kills
The weight of the wealth that sits at the top of America’s economic order isn’t just squeezing dollars out of the wallets of average Americans. That concentrated wealth is shearing years off of American lives. The latest evidence for that squeeze on American wallets comes from the Census Bureau. And increasing inequality, a just-released Government Accountability Office study makes clear, is killing many of us off before our time.
Tax The Rich Before The Rest
Presidential candidates should take a pledge: The middle class should not pay one dollar more in new taxes until the super-rich pay their fair share. Already candidates are outlining ambitious programs to improve health care, combat climate change, and address the...
Can Business Put People Before Profits?
Jamie Dimon and friends. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / Financial Times / cc Gordon Gekko found religion last week. Gekko, the lead in the 1987 movie “Wall Street” about capitalism gone corruptly amok, is most famous for his phrase: “greed is good.” Last Monday,...
We Need What Canada Has: Economic Security
Average Canadians may or may not not have more fun than their American counterparts. They certainly, a new study shows, have more income.
'New' NAFTA Fails Workers On Both Sides Of Border
Mickey Ray Williams keeps a Goodyear tire in his Gadsden, Ala., conference room. Made in Mexico and imported to Gadsden, that tire induces fear. It’s an Assurance All-Season tire. Those were developed at Goodyear’s Gadsden factory in 2014. Now some, or possibly all,...
Have We Hit Peak Decadence In The United States?
Have we hit peak decadence in the United States? Probably not. But we’re getting awfully close. The latest evidence: the emerging deep-pocket world of the “super-penthouse.”
