Lawrence Weschler’s Boggs: A Comedy Of Values 12.02.99 | reviewed by James K. Galbraith Modern economists make bad historians, as a rule. The problem is that a simple-minded metaphor-supply and demand-with its deep yet subtle political commitment to laissez-faire, controls their thought. The market is supposed to rule. Therefore it does. Whatever happened, the market […]
Article
Posted inBooks
Workers United
Robert Bruno’s Steelworker Alley: How Class Works in Youngstown 12.02.99 | reviewed by Lisa Burrell Black spots on his father’s lungs convinced Robert Bruno it was time to reconnect with his family and his working-class roots. The result of his journey home is Steelworker Alley: How Class Works in Youngstown, a well- researched argument that […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Nationalism We Need
There are two faces of American nationalism-one negative, one positive. The negative face wants to block trade, deter immigrants, and eschew global responsibilities. The positive one wants to reduce poverty among the nation’s children, ensure that everyone within America has decent health care, and otherwise improve the lives of all our people. Both give priority […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Up With Social Insurance
Max J. Skidmore’s Social Security and Its Enemies: The Case for America’s Most Efficient Insurance Program 12.02.99 | reviewed by Erik Cole One of the most remarkable items unearthed by Max J. Skidmore in Social Security and Its Enemies: The Case for America’s Most Efficient Insurance Program is a set of radio ads made for […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Rank Class
Nicholas Lemann’s The Big Test 12.02.99 | reviewed by Peter Schrag The late Albert Shanker, longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, sometimes made the facetious suggestion that if children were all awarded college diplomas at birth, knowledge would be pursued for its own sake and a great many of the problems of American […]
Posted inFeatures
The Case (once again) for Universal Health Insurance
Forget a tax cut, other than an immediate one-year stimulus that puts money into the hands of people earning less than $50,000 a year. Forget paying down the debt. Use the federal surplus for universal health insurance. Working families won’t get much out of any tax cut, and debt elimination is foolish. But working families […]
Posted inEducation in America
Controversy: The Black-White Test Score Gap
Claude M. Steele Some people who would like very much to right racial inequality will not like the idea, proposed by Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, that reducing the black-white test score gap could be a prime target of public policy. African Americans have been hammered by this test score gap for decades. Focusing on […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Hoop Schemes?
A White House congratulatory ceremony for a championship sports team is usually just a big, friendly photo opportunity, filled with the platitudes and gift exchanges typical of such an apolitical celebration. But in 1991, when the National Basketball Association (NBA) champion Chicago Bulls paid a visit to George Bush, Craig Hodges, then a backup guard […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Special Report: The Crime Debate
I n places as diverse as Anchorage and El Paso, Nassau County and New Orleans, get-tough prosecutors are promising to ban plea bargaining. Too many criminals get off easy, they insist; take away plea bargains, and more will get the punishments they deserve. But these officials may want to consider what happened in the Bronx […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
America’s Global Hand
The global economy is being recast in America’s image. Do American economic planners really know what’s best for the rest of the world?
