Like mushrooms after a spring rain, signs pop up at this time of year in hardscrabble urban neighborhoods across the country, promising quick and easy money.

Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty in his State of the Union Message exactly forty years ago.

A vast impoverished population languishes in the midst of our economy.

Third-quarter GDP grew by 8.2 percent, October unemployment dropped to 6 percent, manufacturing orders are soaring, the stock market is up--as are profits, the value of stock options and CEO sala

On a frigid morning in Washington, DC, two boys about 13 or 14 come to
the driveway of the Ambassador Baptist Church, where the day's meager
food offerings are displayed.

Washington no longer feels it ought to insure that everyone has enough to eat.

In the final days of Rudy Giuliani's term as mayor of New York, three
months after the heroism of 9/11, he quietly approved a politically
wired project to build twenty-five multimillion-dollar

In the shadow of wealth, New York's poor increase.

Tony Hall, just before leaving Congress in September, sat in his office
in Longworth House Office Building and thought of something that had
stuck with him since a trip to Appalachia.

Chris Kraus reviews Cool for You, by Eileen Myles.