Books, Brilliance, or Burgers

Finding out that higher education and burger production have a disturbing amount in common.

Deric Mendes

The Poverty Nation Washington Built

The massive job losses between 2008 and 2009 were surely the biggest factor in the record poverty numbers the Census just reported. But those harrowing months were neither the beginning nor the end of the problem.

Kai Wright

Conversation: Kai Wright & Tony Romano on Public Housing Access

Thirty thousand people showed up outside of Atlanta in search of Section 8 housing vouchers last week; 62 vouchers were available. It’s a powerful reminder that the recession is not over.

The Nation on Grit TV

Food Stamps or Teachers?

The fight over Congress’s jobs bill has made the GOP’s midterm election strategy clear: stubbornly oppose anything and everything that might improve the economy and hope voters blame Democrats for these tough times come November.

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Economic Recovery Starts With Good Jobs

Creating jobs that pay poverty-like wages might feel like a quick fix, but if it doesn’t get working families back on their feet, it won’t do much for our economy.

Mike Fishman and Paul Sonn

Prankly, My Dear, They Don’t Give a Damn

You know how you can tell the Age of Reagan has ended? Because at his State of the Union address, Barack Obama didn’t do any of those ordinary-folks-who-make-a-difference shout-outs to the gallery, as every POTUS (that is, Populist of the United States) has since the Gipper’s first SOTU in 1982. But if Obama had called on someone, given the frustrated and hectoring nature of his speech, I bet I know who he would have liked to ask to stand up and take a bow: James O’Keefe, the putative pimp and ACORN slayer.

Leslie Savan

Howard Zinn: The Historian Who Made History

Howard Zinn, who died in 2010 at the age of 87, did nothing less than rewrite the narrative of the United States. 

Dave Zirin

Dr. Martin Luther King’s Economics: Through Jobs, Freedom

How would Dr. King have responded to the current crises of recession, unemployment, and foreclosure?

Mark Engler

Diapers 101

Did you know that diapers are not covered by public assistance programs like WIC or food stamps? And did you know that diaper companies do not make significant donations to shelters or outreach programs, as infant formula manufacturers do? That makes diapers one of the scarcest resources for poor families.

Peter Rothberg

…And a Law for Poor People

Obama wants to repeal many strictures on legal services funding. But more needs to be done.