Though hardly a new phenomenon, gangs of poor youth are once again in the news and movies. There is one new factor: the vanishing prospect of industrial jobs that lead out of poverty.
Poverty & Wealth
Posted inEconomic Policy
Suite Greed
But for the fact that Democrats are now drinking from the same campaign-finance trough as Republicans, the scandal of executive salaries would be a major issue in the 1992 campaign. The scandal has been growing for years, of course, even before the Reagan-Bush greed decade. In 1960, the chief executive of one of America’s 100 […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Can Democracy Save Chicago’s Schools?
With much fanfare, Chicago has moved to decentralize control of what some have called the worst public school system in America. But reform has been financially and politically crippled from the start.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Kindest Cut
Of three tax relief plans on the congressional table, only one significantly benefits middle-class families.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Great Bargain
The next president of the United States either will lead the world into an era of unprecedented peace and growth, in which virtually all nations are knitted together into a seamless economic web, or will watch the world fragment into three trading blocs of advanced and rapidly developing nations, and a fourth vast territory — […]
Posted inBooks
From Crisis to Working Majority
Reports of the death of the Democrats are greatly exaggerated. Three new books, despite their author’s pessimism, suggest how to reconstruct the party’s middle-class foundations.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Constitutional Mischief: What’s Wrong with Term Limitations
How to fill legislatures with the old, the rich, and the bought.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Private Use of Public Life
Last December, a public interest group called the Center for Public Integrity published a unique analysis of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), titled “America’s Frontline Trade Officials.”* The center used a wide variety of government documents, newsletters, press clips, directories, and other sources to piece together the career paths of mid-level and […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Why Save the Banks? The Ambivalent Liberal’s Guide to Reform
Liberals may find it difficult to muster sympathy for bankers, but there are compelling reasons to strengthen banking. Reforms should help restore the banks’ profitability, while coupling new powers with stronger supervision to curb abuses.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Delectable Materialism: Were the Critics of Consumer Culture Wrong All Along?
It takes an immigrant, or a Soviet visitor, to celebrate the culture of consumerism. Why, as a nation, are we so eager for material improvement, yet so skeptical of materialism?
