Dollars & Sense articles from January 2006

Dollars & Sense archives from January 2006

From the editors.
January 1, 2006... With this issue, D & S inaugurates an occasional series of articles on the political economy of prisons and criminal justice. This month we profile the Real Cost of Prisons Project, a popular-education group that uses great comics to bring...

The war on women.(safety to women)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Women are overwhelmingly affected by violence in times of both war and peace, and are more likely to be injured or killed by abuse inflicted by men than by war, accidents and illness combined. These are among the conclusions reached by the...

Anti-Semitism and Fordism.(the short run)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... We have made it through the onslaught of Christmas consumerism, accompanied this year with the puzzling pronouncements from the right that Christmas is under attack by the forces of "political correctness." One source of holiday cheer was...

T-bills for tots?(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... In my family, some holiday traditions--wrapping presents with the funny papers, or oranges and walnuts in our stockings (which were dutifully replaced in the fruit and nut bowls after Christmas morning)--were reminders of the economic hardships...

... more downsides of toy collecting.(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Recently, a group of British researchers looking into the role of product brands among children were so shocked by the children's violent treatment of their Barbie dolls that they refocused their study. Children, they observed, treated their...

Extreme insurance, dude!(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... WellPoint, a private insurance company based in Indianapolis, is marketing a new high-deductible health plan to young adults by playing up the excitement of being underinsured, according to the Indianapolis Star. The plan, called Tonik, has...

A word from our sponsors.(Jingle Networks provides free directory assistance)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... While the big telecoms like Verizon are hiking their fees for directory assistance calls, a new outfit called Jingle Networks has found a way to offer "free" directory assistance. Instead of paying up to $1.25 for a 411 call, customers can dial...

Pompoms for prozac.(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... As regulators crack down on the fancy dinners, free trips, and other freebies pharmaceutical marketing reps give doctors, marketers are embarking on a new strategy to push their pills. According to the New York Times, college cheerleaders are...

Ampersand.(the short run)(Cartoon)
January 1, 2006... amptoons.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Welfare reform ten years later: welfare "as we knew it" ended in 1996; poverty didn't.
January 1, 2006... In 1996, the U.S. government radically changed its cash assistance program for poor families with children--commonly called welfare. Now that nearly a decade has passed, including periods of both expansion and recession in the overall economy,...

The political economy of the prison crisis: an introduction.(making sense)
January 1, 2006... This is the first in an occasional series of articles examining the economic underpinnings and consequences of the United States' swelling criminal justice system. In 2003, prison activist Julie Falk argued, presciently, that looming budget...

The real cost of prisons project: economic analysis of the prison crisis reaches the grassroots.(active culture)(Editorial)
January 1, 2006... The people most directly affected by the prison crisis--prisoners, former prisoners, their family members and friends--know the human costs of mass incarceration first hand. They are the targets of the war on drugs, "tough-on-crime" policies,...

What's good for Wal-Mart ...(Company overview)
January 1, 2006... Who's Number One? The Customer! Always!" The last line of Wal-Mart's company cheer just about sums up the Wall Street Journal editors' benign view of the behemoth corporation. But a more honest answer would be Wal-Mart itself: not the customer,...

Post-Apartheid vineyards: land redistribution begins to transform South Africa's wine country.
January 1, 2006... As I walked through the rows of grape vines with a representative of one of South Africa's few worker co-owned vineyards, I could tell that he was proud of what his group had accomplished. Nearly all of the 60 members of the Bouwland...

The incredible shrinking company: corporate giants snag federal small business set-aside contracts.
January 1, 2006... Between 2002 and 2005, St. Augustine, Fla., exercise equipment vendor Raul Espinosa watched mystified as, one after another, a series of Air Force contracts he had placed bids on were given to other companies. Of the 14 bids that Espinosa has...

The meritocracy myth: a Dollars & Sense interview with Lani Guinier.(Interview)
January 1, 2006... Lani Guinier became a household name in 1993 when Bill Clinton appointed her to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and then, under pressure from conservatives, withdrew her nomination without a confirmation hearing....

Medicare Part D gets an "F".
January 1, 2006... Medicare Part D, the new drug benefit package that went into effect on January 1, is projected to cost $724 billion over 10 years. Not only is it expensive, it's confusing, and it provides more benefits to insurance companies than to enrollees....

Ask Dr. Dollar.
January 1, 2006... Dear Dr. Dollar: Can you explain how poverty is defined in government statistics? Is this a realistic definition? --Susan Balok, Savannah, Ga. Each February, the Census Bureau publishes the federal poverty thresholds--the income...