Light at the End of the Unemployment Line? (July 30th)
According to Economic Policy Institute economist Josh Bivens, after a contraction of the Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all economic activity, over the past two quarters of an annualized rate of negative six percent, the GDP for this past quarter will come in at about negative 1.5 percent. Without the President's economic recovery act, the number would have been three times higher, he reports.
Climate Bill Provides Real Cost Relief for Consumers
While most people understand the urgency of climate change, one of the top concerns many working families have with a cap-and-trade system is added costs for energy.
Economic Recovery: Take Two
The legacy of the Bush Administration has been a perfect storm of economic devastation – in finance, housing and jobs. The challenge of fixing this economic mess is enormous – and urgent. Creating good jobs that cannot be outsourced is central to the solution.
A Coup is a Coup is a Coup: March on SouthCom in Solidarity with the People of Honduras
Those who have supported the SOA Watch over the years know that Fort Benning and the US Southern Command (SouthCom, the command and control facility for the US military in Latin America and the Caribbean) go hand in hand. Saturday morning, July 25, 60 people (two-thirds of them Latino) gathered in the pouring rain to march to the gates of SouthCom in solidarity with the people of Honduras.
Cartoon: Feasting at the Trough
A recent poll showed just about half of Americans think capitalism is better than socialism. With the collapse of the financial system and the economy, the ideology of the free market has fewer and fewer adherents.
Four Years Post-Katrina, Levee Protection Still Elusive
Four years after Hurricane Katrina, there have been some significant improvements to the levees of New Orleans. However, even with improvements scheduled to be completed in 2011, advocates say the U.S. government has left the standard of protection at dangerously low levels.
The Reality of Vick's Return
While in prison, Vick met with the president of the Humane Society of the United States. He also will be working with groups aimed at steering young people away from dogfighting. By all accounts, Vick is profoundly remorseful. And if you had to declare bankruptcy and spend two years in Leavenworth, you would also be feeling a share of regret.
Lonesome Hobo Economics: Who Should Pay for Universal Health Care?
These two sentiments, both of which I favor, flow from different aspects of the topic question. No one wants to charge a rich man a higher price for an appendectomy than a poor man. Even if you morally approved soaking the rich, you would have to acknowledge the dangerous exploding 'fee schedule' that results often in more, not less waste, and worse health outcomes.
The Mystery of the Cost of Healthcare
A New Yorker magazine investigative report about why McAllen, Texas, a city located in Hidalgo county – which has the lowest per capita income in the country – has one of the highest medical costs per person in the United States (surpassed only by Miami, Florida), has stirred an unusual controversy over the rarely discussed contradictions that affect the quality and coverage of health services in that country.
Foreclosed and Evicted in Oakland
At eight in the morning on Monday, ten Alameda County Sheriffs arrived in their patrol cars in front of the tan house on the corner of Tenth and Willow in west Oakland, the oldest African American neighborhood in the city, and one of the oldest on the west coast. The renovated home is surrounded by an iron fence, and the sheriffs poured through its open gate and up the stairs.
