Raging Inflation
Nicholas von Hoffman : Presidential Election 2008
Our paychecks are disintegrating as we drive them to the bank. Forget hope and change: why aren't the candidates talking about inflation?
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McCain's Mansions
Brave New Films : Presidential Election 2008
Exactly how many luxury homes do John and Cindy McCain own?
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For a New Economics
The Editors : Economic Policy
The tepid platform Democrats will adopt in Denver isn't a new social contract, but it does go places Republicans never will. Let's hope Obama does better.
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The Politics of Pandering
Nicholas von Hoffman : Presidential Election 2008
Until they come up with real solutions to our current economic crisis, Obama and McCain should stop trying to buy votes with fuel rebates.
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Economic Free Fall
William Greider : Economic Policy
We are flirting with catastrophe, and our foreign creditors are part of the story.
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Radio Nation with Laura Flanders
Radio Nation
Naomi Klein asks if the economy is at risk, or if it's really capitalism? Plus, Annabelle Gurwitch and the celebrating the death of the GOP.
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The Suicide Solution
Barbara Ehrenreich
Believe it or not, suicide is becoming an increasingly popular response to dealing with debt.
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How Wall Street Wrecked Your Retirement
Nicholas von Hoffman : Ethical Economics
The architects of America's disfunctional financial system allowed Wall Street gamble with our retirement savings--and now they appear to have lost it.
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Kai Wright Explains the Subprime Swindle
VideoNation : African-Americans
Nation magazine contributor Kai Wright discusses his July 14 article about the mortgage crisis and its effect on the black middle class.
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The Subprime Swindle
Kai Wright : Class
How the mortgage industry stole black America's hard-won wealth.
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A Subprime Bailout
The Editors : White-Collar Crime
Congress bails out the banks, but needs to do far more for homeowners devastated by the subprime crisis.
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Barbara Ehrenreich Takes On Colbert
The Colbert Report
Barbara Ehrenreich discusses her new book, This Land is Their Land, and riffs on the 'New Inequality' with the king of deadpan.
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Obama's Chicago Boys
Naomi Klein : Presidential Election 2008
Before Obama can transform the economy, he has some housecleaning to do.
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Ending Plutocracy: A 12-Step Program
Sarah Anderson & Sam Pizzigati : Ethical Economics
Our forebears struggled to survive in a world dominated by the superrich. Now it's our turn.
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This Land Is Their Land
Barbara Ehrenreich
In the era of the superrich, if a place is truly beautiful, ordinary people can't afford to be there.
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Race and Extreme Inequality
Dedrick Muhammad : Ethical Economics
Will Obama's presidential candidacy signal a change for impoverished African-Americans?
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Meet the Wealth Gap
Gabriel Thompson : Ethical Economics
Top dogs and underdogs brush shoulders in Manhattan.
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Our Gilded Age
Doug Henwood : Ethical Economics
Today's elite spend on a grand scale while pretending to be "just folks."
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The Rich and the Rest of Us
John Cavanagh & Chuck Collins : Ethical Economics
In this age of inequality, the wealth that should be shared by all Americans trickle up to the rich.
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A Devil's Dictionary of Finance
Nicholas von Hoffman : White-Collar Crime
An irreverent lexicon of terms that paved the way to the subprime mortgage meltdown.
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Federal Reserve Freakout
Nicholas von Hoffman
The Fed scrambles for solutions to the mortgage meltdown--but saving prudent homeowners also involves bailing out a huge number of wealthy speculators. What good is that?
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Market Media Meltdown
Danny Schechter : Television
Financial news outlets, tethered to a mission to pump up confidence and support their advertisers, helped fuel the subprime meltdown.
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Poor Is the New Rich!
Annabelle Gurwitch
As waves of poverty wash over the once-affluent, it's nice to know that you can share the pain.
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The Candidates Pump Gas
Nicholas von Hoffman : Oil
As Clinton and McCain pander to frustrated voters with tax cuts, the real remedies to rising gas prices go unexplored.
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Bitter? You Should Be! Why Obama Is Right
Nicholas von Hoffman : Presidential Election 2008
If you had to choose between Hillary or God for economic assistance, who would you cling to?
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The Little Administration That Couldn't
Tom Engelhardt
At the hour of our latest and greatest crisis, don't expect anything of this bunch but the usual heck of a job.
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Is This the Big One?
Jeff Faux : Housing & Homelessness
The blowback of housing deflation on our overleveraged financial markets has seriously constricted the flow of credit--the lifeblood of the world's largest debtor economy.
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By Bus Through the Middle West
Oswald Garrison Villard : Nation History
A tour of the heartland in the depths of the Great Depression.
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A Chaos of Experimentation
Andrea Batista Schlesinger : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
The New Deal spirit of "persistent experimentation" yielded impressive results for the country. American leaders can recapture that spirit.
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The War and the Working Class
Michael Zweig : Iraq War
Young people drawn into combat by the "economic draft" are being treated just as poorly as all the other workers in this neoliberal economy.
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The Wages of Peace
Robert Pollin & Heidi Garrett-Peltier : Iraq War
Spending on the war in Iraq is a job killer. Ending the war would be the real stimulus package.
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Who Said the War Would Pay for Itself? They Did!
Victor Navasky & Christopher Cerf : Iraq War
Unwise words from the "experts" who promised a cost-free war.
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It's the War Economy, Stupid!
The Editors : Iraq War
Among the major causes of the current economic crisis is the staggering cost of the war in Iraq.
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Class War (chart)
Who's losing and who's winning at home from the US occupation of Iraq?
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The Fall of the American Consumer
Barbara Ehrenreich
We have been the world's designated shoppers, and, if we fall down on the job, we take the global economy with us.
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The Incredible Shrinking Paycheck
Nancy Cleeland : Economic Policy
Feeling squeezed? It's official: if you're not in management, the value of your paycheck is dropping at an alarming rate.
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Half-a-Loaf Stimulus
Nancy Cleeland : Economic Policy
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.
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Wall Street's Crisis
The Editors : Economic Policy
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.
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The Panic of 2008
The Editors
A humane and sensible stimulus package would put money in the hands of those who need it.
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Chalmers Johnson: America's Going Bankrupt
Chalmers Johnson : US Politics & Government
From Tom Dispatch: The current economic crisis is caused by policies that tax the richest Americans at strikingly low levels and spend huge sums on defense projects that have no bearing on national security.
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Desperately Seeking Stimulus
Barbara Ehrenreich : Economic Policy
An economy addicted to growth, bubbles, downsizing and lending sprees--has become disconnected from the real economy of ordinary human needs.
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Our Eroding Dollar
Nicholas von Hoffman : Federal Reserve Board
No matter how much it adds to inflation, the Fed, prodded by Wall Street, is poised to again lower interest rates--punching an even bigger hole in our purchasing power.
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Twin Disasters
The Editors : Iraq War
When will the candidates cease their petty sniping and address the real issues: the Iraq War and the faltering economy?
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Those Ungrateful Saudis
Robert Scheer : George W. Bush
After all he's done for them, why is it that Bush only gets a 12 percent favorability rating in Saudi Arabia?
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'Catastrophic Times' for Black America
Max Fraser : African-Americans
The devastating impact of the mortgage crisis on black communities dominated Jesse Jackson's latest economic summit. What solutions does Barack Obama propose?
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United We Scam
Steve Fraser : Banks & Banking
Two new books profile the generation of counterfeiters and con men who sprouted up in Jacksonian-era America.
2007
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Sovereign Wealth: Theirs, Not Ours
Nicholas von Hoffman : Banks & Banking
As the US economy sickens, foreign governments are on a shopping spree, scooping up bargains paid for by sovereign wealth funds.
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Stop the Subprime Tsunami
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson : Racism & Discrimination
Predatory lending is the biggest economic crisis since 1929, especially for the black and brown people caught in its grip.
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Give Us This Day Our Daily Debt
Nicholas von Hoffman : Economic Policy
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.
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Beyond the Age of Petroleum
Michael T. Klare : World Economy
Welcome to the Age of Insuffiency: As oil prices hit new highs and supplies sink, our way of life will drastically change.
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Toxic Toys
Mark Schapiro : Health & Disease
As safety scandals dampen the public's appetite for cheap imports, the European Union is raising doubts about standards and oversight in the US toy industry.
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The Fix Is In From the Fed--Maybe
What, exactly, is the interest-rate cut going to fix?
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The Fed Won't Help the Working Class
Nicholas von Hoffman : Economic Policy
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.
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The Economy Debates
Katrina vanden Heuvel & Robert L. Borosage : Campaigns & Elections
Want to know the real differences between the candidates? Listen to what they say about the economy.
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Smashing Capitalism
The victims of the housing market's collapse are crippling an unjust economic system.
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The New Bipartisan Capitalism
A new study addressing the plight the American worker in a global economy tries to solve economic inequity through tax policy rather than systemic change. A much broader vision is required.
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Wall Street, Iraq and the Declining Dollar
The Iraq War, the declining supply of oil and a flood of US currency are setting the stage for economic disaster.
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The Flaws in Rubinomics
Thomas Palley : Economic Policy
Economic policy centered on a balanced budget will destroy what's left of FDR's New Deal.
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Home Truths
That poor children in the United States and Britain have the worst quality of life in the developed world speaks volumes about our misplaced priorities.
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Will China Choke on US Dollars?
China is losing its taste for lending the United States money that finances our wars, props up our dollar and shores up our credit.
2006
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The Growing Wage Gap
A winning economic strategy for Democrats: Push for realistic policies to relieve workers' frustrations, rebuild their damaged confidence and improve lifetime security.
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Wall Street Doesn't Like This War
High levels of uncertainty, poor management and an $800 billion expenditure on a venture that has put America's brand at risk all conspire to make the Street pretty skittish about Iraq.
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Inequality Counts
The relentless reduction of taxes on the wealthy has created a profound inequality between the very rich and the bottom half of American society, affecting every aspect of daily life.
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J.K. Galbraith and the Forks in the Road
Alexander Cockburn : Economics
While John Kenneth Galbraith was good at pointing out the failures of the free enterprise system, he could never overcome the play-to-win mentality of American capitalism.
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Leaking Bubble
The US housing market has been responsible for about half the economy's recent growth, but increasing dependence on home-equity credit could create a financial disaster.
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A Moral Economy
Fred Block : Ethical Economics
Progresssives must articulate a vision of a moral economy and a benevolent community that challenges the rhetoric of market fundamentalism.
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The Price of Inflation
Nicholas von Hoffman : George W. Bush Administration
Bush is using inflation to pay off the deficits incurred by his Administration, leaving future generations with more problems than just debt.
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A Warning Bell
William Greider : Democratic Party
Democrats can capitalize on the current economic stall and gain control of Congress with a return to bedrock principles: creating jobs, restoring incomes and rescuing families from debt.
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Monetary Zombies
Nicholas von Hoffman : Banks & Banking
We're on our way to being a society of economic zombies, half dead and half alive, buried in debt but prevented by credit card companies from declaring bankruptcy.
2005
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G.M. Stumps the Senators
John Keats : Corporate Consolidation
With assembly plant shut-downs and a massive layoff of 5,000 workers, GM has seen better days. Those include the 1950s, when GM was in trouble with the Senate for being too powerful, and accused of artificially raising prices and creating a monopoly in Detroit.
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Buyers' Remorse
Nicholas von Hoffman : Housing & Homelessness
Home equity--for those lucky enough to own a house or condo--is a primary source of economic security. But unsold inventory, rising interest rates and record levels of mortgage defaults are making the future look grim.
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Rising Prices + Higher Interest Rates = Middle-Class Misery
Nicholas von Hoffman : Federal Reserve Board
Interest rates nosed higher today as the Federal Reserve Board sought to control inflation. But the impact of runaway inflation is already being felt by workers whose wages will stagnate and whose earning power is on a steep decline.
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Squeezing the Have-Nots
William Greider : Employment/Unemployment
Fitful efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast unfold against a backdrop of looming economic disaster: rising unemployment and interest rates, misplaced priorities and a recession that will hurt the weakest most.
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Pop Goes the Real Estate Bubble
Nicholas von Hoffman : Banks & Banking
Stocks crash and housing prices tend to go down with a whisper. But a disturbing number of signs now point to a sudden burst of the real estate bubble.
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Running on Fumes
Sasha Abramsky : Gap Between Wealth & Poverty
Unless the federal government does something now, rising gas prices have the potential to break the blue-collar backbone of many American towns.
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'One Nation, Fragmented'
Eyal Press : African-Americans
It took a Gulf Coast hurricane to make Americans aware of the poverty in their own backyard. Now it's time for public policies that end racial segregation, so that the poor in this country will not continue to suffer.
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The One-Eyed Chairman
William Greider : Economic Policy
When the adulation fades, Alan Greenspan will be recognized as a right-wing ideologue and the most politicized Fed chairman in history.
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Chinese Shark Attack!
China panic can be found at the progressive end of the spectrum.
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Profiles in Cowardice
William Greider : Democratic Party
Senate Democrats are preparing to take a dive on the issue they have righteously hammered for four years--the estate tax.
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The New Ownership Society
Gar Alperovitz : Economic Policy
Progressives should redefine what constitutes an ownership society.
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Fiddling While Crucial Programs Starve
Robert Scheer : Government Programs
Has the United States become like ancient Rome, in love with costly conquest?
2004
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Bush's House of Cards
Dean Baker : Housing & Homelessness
As bad as Bush's economic record is, it would appear far worse if not for the housing bubble.
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America's Last Honest Place
Marc Cooper : Corporate Consolidation
Las Vegas is the American market ethic stripped bare, a mini-world totally free of the pretenses and protocols of modern consumer capitalism.
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Debtor Nation
William Greider : Globalization
When will this hemorrhaging debtor nation be compelled to pull back from profligate consumption?
2003
2002
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Reforming Welfare--Take Two
As Congress revisits the welfare debate, it's time to look at what the law has wrought.
2001
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Stockman Returneth
William Greider : Economic Policy
As Washington seems about to replay history as farce, a reflection on the lessons learned from David Stockman and Reaganomics is in order.
This week: How the democrats can best pursue a true progressive economic platform and a fair and just immigration policy? The Nation's Bob Moser, John Nichols and Roberto Lovato debate on these two critical issues. (13mb mp3)
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