Book Review: Chris Arnade’s “Dignity”
Chris Arnade’s 150,000-mile, multi-year photograhic journey through unthriving America—urban and rural, black and white, from Lewiston, Maine, to Bakersfield, California, with many stops in between.
Read more...Category Archives: The destruction of the middle class
Revealed: Americans Care More About Social Needs Than Deficits
A recent poll from the Democracy Collaborative and YouGov reveals that most Americans are ready to spend more for social needs, even if it raises the deficit.
Read more...Forget Lower Jobs Growth, The Number of People Who’ve Stopped Looking for Work Is Much More Worrisome
Why the jobs market isn’t as strong as the headline unemployment figures would have you believe.
Read more...Charter Schools Are a Major Dividing Line for the 2020 Democratic Candidates—Education Fights in Pennsylvania Point the Way
Charter schools are finally becoming a battleground.
Read more...The Poor Who Are Not With Us
Why some of the poor get all the attention.
Read more...Eight Reasons Why Inequality Ruins the Economy
Econimists have noticed, awfully late in the game, that high levels of inequality are correlated with lower growth. There are reasons to think this relationship is causal.
Read more...Consumers Are Changing But Perhaps Not How You Think
Deloitte report reveals that millennial consumers will not change the world, and that their consumption patterns reflect the pressures that burden the middle class.
Read more...Why Democratic Presidential Candidates May Have to Choose Between Teacher Pay Raises and Charter Schools
Florida becomes a charter school battleground as communities fight a state law that diverts some of the proceeds from bond offererings, even ones approved for public school teacher salaries, to charter schools.
Read more...Consumer Contracts Restatement Delayed: Consumers Win…For Now
Following pushback from Elizabeth Warren, state attorneys general, and both consumer advocates and business groups, consumer contracts restatement delayed – for now.
Read more...Is Conservatism Running on Brand Fumes?
Why the foundations of conservatism are crumbling.
Read more...UBI Without Quality Public Services Is a Neoliberal’s Paradise
Why should governments give cash-handouts before providing free, quality public services to all?
Read more...Beware Billionaires Bearing Gifts
Billionaires’ gifts are too often intended to remake society along their preferred lines.
Read more...Trump’s Sneak Attack on Social Security
Trump budget proposal incorporates an attack on Social Security, advocating a switch to the chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) to index the federal definition of poverty, a step that would result in lower benefits.
Read more...Public-Private Partnerships Fad Fails
After the failure and abuses of privatization became apparent, public-private partnerships have since been promoted to mobilize private finance for the public purpose. PPPs have socialized costs and losses while ensuring private financial gains.
Read more...Bill Black: Ocasio-Cortez & Sanders Introduce Bill to Cap Credit Card Interest Rates at 15%
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders introduce legislation: they call it Loan Shark Prevention, which would allow post offices to act as banks and cap interest rates at 15%, but credit card companies claim it would hurt the poor.
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