Where Uncle Sam Ought to Be Snooping
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Let's place private corporations with government contracts under surveillance — to make sure no one is getting rich off our tax dollars. Read Post
They Can’t Stop Beethoven, Can They? Orchestral Workers Fight For Dignity
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For the grasping managers of Corporate America — and the institutions their wealth dominates — no workers deserve dignity, not even the most amazingly accomplished. Locked-out musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra What do bank executives who make $19 million a year do in their spare time? They do the same thing they do in the [...] Read Post
Let’s Talk Taxes; Let’s Talk Trillions
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America’s deepest pockets, a new report shows, are saving big bucks from the U.S. tax code’s wide assortment of income tax breaks. They’re saving even more from the absence of a wealth tax. A hundred years ago, in 1913, Congress wrote into law a federal income tax. Lawmakers have been dotting the tax code, almost [...] Read Post
How Many Rotting Apples Do Our Hedges Hide?
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High-profile federal prosecutions of America's hedge fund managers only hint at the crime and ethical misbehavior rampant in America's most rewarding high-finance suites. Read Post
Satisfaction and Smiles in an Unequal World
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If President Obama played basketball with the king of Bhutan, would the world have a better shot at becoming a happier place? What makes us happy? A simple question. In America, we’ve been asking it ever since 1776, the year we declared for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Back in those days, Americans [...] Read Post
A Promising Path for Pummeling Plutocracy
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Looking for a quick fix to the deep inequality that so afflicts us? Stop your searching. We need to strategize instead for the long-term. A riveting new work from a leading historian helps us see how. The 79-year-old corporate gadfly Robert Monks, the former top federal regulator over America’s pension system, earlier this year opined [...] Read Post
Hypocrites with Fat Wallets: The CEOs Who Want It All
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America’s top corporate executives love lecturing the rest of us about ‘fiscal responsibility.’ They want us to expect less from government. But they expect more, and a new report shows how they’re getting it. Last week, federal unemployment benefits for the 400,000 Californians out of work since last fall dropped almost 18 percent, a $52 [...] Read Post
From a Sloppy Spreadsheet, an Eternal Truth
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If we let wealth continue to concentrate — and corrupt every element of our contemporary societies — we’ll all end up crying ‘96 tears.’ Aging baby boomers may remember, from way back in 1966, a one-hit-wonder rock band that sported an all-time great of a name. That band — Question Mark and the Mysterians — [...] Read Post
The Only CEO Pay Number that Really Matters
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How much did America's top execs make last year? The scorekeepers don't all agree. But that won't matter if we keep our eyes on the most important figure of all: the pay gap between CEOs and workers. Read Post
Not the Picture Picasso Would Have Painted
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A colossal gift from a fabulously rich patron of the arts has the museum world buzzing. But hold the hosannahs. The rich aren't saving our culture. Read Post
