Economic Policy

Truckers Take Their Case to the Capitol

Barbara Ehrenreich : Energy

Riding with a caravan that descended on Washington Monday, to call for immediate government action to push down fuel prices.
Truckers Hit the Brakes

Barbara Ehrenreich : Energy

Hard hit by rising costs and the threat of losing their rigs, truckers are staging protests, calling for a bailout and lower fuel prices. What if the rest of us joined them?
Dems Flunking Trade 101

John Nichols : Democratic Party

As Clinton rewrites the history of her support for NAFTA, Obama needs to prove he understands what's wrong with global trade pacts.
Put Inflation on the Political Agenda

Nicholas von Hoffman : Presidential Election 2008

Gas is up, sneakers are up, onions are up and eggs, too. The only thing that is not up is your income.
For a Social Bailout

Robin Blackburn : Banks & Banking

Let's reinvent progressive economic policy, starting with our own sovereign wealth fund to deal with urgent social needs.
Extreme Inequality

Daniel Brook : Gap Between Wealth & Poverty

A look at the gap between rich and poor via two books: David Cay Johnson's Free Lunch and Michael J. Thompson's The Politics of Inequality.
The Only Fitting Tribute

Frances Moore Lappé : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left

For Roosevelt, the New Deal was a way of advancing freedom, which depended on economic as much as political rights.
The Gentlemen's Bailout

The Editors : Banks & Banking

The power of Wall Street money and ideas must give way to a new public agenda to restore the real economy.
The Math on Government Spending

Daniel Carol : Budget

Proving once and for all that progressive economic projects are worth more than tax cuts.
How to Swim Against the Current

Jim Hightower & Susan DeMarco : Corporate Responsibility & Accountability

People are wriggling free of the fetters of corporate culture.
The Faith of Roosevelt

The Editors : History

"To achieve 'social values more noble than mere monetary profit,' to 'keep the money changers permanently out of the temple of our civilization'...would be to transform America."
The Incredible Shrinking Paycheck

Nancy Cleeland : U.S. Economy

Feeling squeezed? It's official: if you're not in management, the value of your paycheck is dropping at an alarming rate.
Half-a-Loaf Stimulus

Nancy Cleeland : U.S. Economy

Good news in the stimulus package: low and middle income Americans receive cash to rev a slowing economy. Bad news: tax breaks for businesses won't help much at all.
The Ron Paul Economy

Nicholas von Hoffman : Federal Reserve Board

OK, three-quarters of what he says is wacky. But his view of the Fed's contribution to rampant inflation is right on the money.
Disowned by the Ownership Society

Naomi Klein : George W. Bush

Bush turns out to be the undertaker of the free market's false promises to ordinary Americans.
Wall Street's Crisis

The Editors : U.S. Economy

It was a record day in the history of the Stock Exchange and, coming as a climax to more than three weeks of declining prices, it was most disastrous in hammering down security values.
Desperately Seeking Stimulus

Barbara Ehrenreich : U.S. Economy

An economy addicted to growth, bubbles, downsizing and lending sprees--has become disconnected from the real economy of ordinary human needs.
Recession--Who Cares?

Barbara Ehrenreich : Presidential Election 2008

Politicians and economists find it hard to admit that we have two economies--one for the rich and one for everyone else--and the latter has been in a recession, if not a depression, for a long, long time.

2007

Deal Breakers

Kim Phillips-Fein : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left

Two new books seek to galvanize progressives at a key political moment: Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal and Jonathan Chait's The Big Con.
Crisis as Opportunity

: Presidential Election 2008

The softening economy, foreclosures, bank write-offs, the swooning dollar and stock market are intruding on the politics of 2008. Do the candidates have a clue?
Give Us This Day Our Daily Debt

Nicholas von Hoffman : U.S. Economy

As the superrich get richer, the rest of us sink deeper into debt. But when American consumers can no longer consume, our whole system falls apart.
The New China Hands

Ken Silverstein : China

Corporate America spends millions lobbying to win permanent most favored nation (MFN) trade status for China, with its vast market and dirt-cheap labor force.
How to Fix Our Broken Economy

Jeff Madrick : Political Parties

The political mainstream is beholden to sclerotic economic policies that serve only a fraction of the public's interests.
Greenspan and the Myth of the True Believer

Naomi Klein : Autobiography & Memoir

His autobiography sheds light on what motivates hard-right political leaders to apply brutal economic shock therapy.
Fidel, You Got the Wrong Conspiracy

Alexander Cockburn : Alan Greenspan

Forget 9/11. Alan Greenspan escapes vilification for his role in a plot against America's economic security.
The Housing Bubble Pops

Dean Baker : Banks & Banking

To solve the subprime mortgage crisis, start with aid for vulnerable homeowners, smarter economic policies and a more competent Federal Reserve Board.
The Fed Won't Help the Working Class

Nicholas von Hoffman : U.S. Economy

By pumping more money into the economy to bail out hedge funds and subprime lenders, the Federal Reserve will only worsen inflation's bite into average Americans' paychecks.
Hip Heterodoxy

Christopher Hayes

A group of economists is challenging the most basic assumptions of neoclassical economic theory, and their influence is growing.
The Flaws in Rubinomics

Thomas Palley : U.S. Economy

Economic policy centered on a balanced budget will destroy what's left of FDR's New Deal.
The Establishment Rethinks Globalization

William Greider : Globalization

An unlikely dissident has proposed a new way to understand, and reform, the world economy.
Credit Card Tricks

Nicholas von Hoffman : Banks & Banking

Banks no longer lend money to people able to pay them back. Now they trap the poor, the sick, students and elderly people into signing up for credit cards and watch the fees pile up.
What Kind of Economy?

James K. Galbraith : Ethical Economics

Progressives need to create an economic agenda that encompasses the environment and social justice.
A Globalization Offensive

William Greider : Globalization

In 2007 Congress may get real on the fallacies and contradictions of global trade.

2006

The 'Seattle Senators'

John Nichols

Newly elected advocates of fair trade in the House and Senate could reverse the free-trade absolutism of the Clinton and Bush years.
Friedman's Cruel Legacy

William Greider

Milton Friedman's free-market faith produced a bastardized system of interest-group politics that favors sectors of citizens at the expense of many others.
The Economic Debate: Fear vs. Corruption

Robert L. Borosage : Electoral Politics

As election day approaches, don't expect a reasoned discussion of economic policy between the two parties. A barrage of quips and one-liners have taken the place of detail and fact in political debate.
Undone by Neoliberalism

Adolph Reed Jr. : Social & Economic Rights

Before the storm, neoliberalism shaped the social and economic inequities of New Orleans; after Hurricane Katrina, it worsened them by making government the tool of corporations and investors.
Born-Again Rubinomics

William Greider : Globalization

Is Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's new "conceptual framework" of economic reform an acknowledgment of neoliberalism's failures or simply a repackaged version of Clintonomics?
History Lesson

Nicholas von Hoffman : Iraq War

Back in Washington's day, Congress printed money to fight the Revolutionary War without collecting taxes to back it up--and paid the price in inflation: History repeats itself today.
Giving Americans a Raise

Katrina vanden Heuvel & Sam Graham-Felsen : Congress

The massive number of Americans who support raising the minimum wage should spur Congress to action.

2005

The Real Costs of a Culture of Greed

Robert Scheer : Conservatives & The American Right

The affluent mask of the United States has been torn away by the storm, exposing a nation that has become progressively poorer under the leadership of the party of Big Business.
The One-Eyed Chairman

William Greider : U.S. Economy

When the adulation fades, Alan Greenspan will be recognized as a right-wing ideologue and the most politicized Fed chairman in history.
When China Went Shopping

Nicholas von Hoffman : Corporations

Like oil and water, Chinese capitalism and US politics just don't mix.
Giving Africa a Hand

: Africa

Activists must push for more debt relief for all impoverished countries in Africa.
No Flat World in Europe

Thomas Geoghegan : European Union

Despite alarmist talk, the European economy is not in shambles.
The New Ownership Society

Gar Alperovitz : U.S. Economy

Progressives should redefine what constitutes an ownership society.
Letter From Beijing

Jehangir S. Pocha : China

Chinese activists oppose the "Washington Consensus."
Indecent Proposal

: Budget
A Fight We Can Win

John Nichols : Central America