Dollars & Sense articles from January 2008

Dollars & Sense archives from January 2008

From the editors.(financial crises)(Editorial)
January 1, 2008... Well, the economic crisis story has broken wide open. It's astonishing how rapidly the official discussion of the economy, in Washington and in the press, took nearly a one-eighty. One day the economy was robust; the next day forecasts of a...

A dream foreclosed.(home foreclosures)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Rampant home foreclosures have made the headlines lately, but hidden on the back pages, or ignored entirely, is the wildly disparate impact on communities of color. In its annual report for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Foreclosed: State of...

Whose Internet?(access control of workplace internet)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... The Internet can be a powerful tool for democracy--but apparently not in the workplace. The National Labor Relations Board ruled in December that employers can prohibit their workers from using company e-mail for union organizing. By a...

Detained and electrocuted.(immigrant's death)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Cesar Gonzales-Baeza, a Mexican immigrant detained for ten months at the Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster, Calif., was electrocuted on December 5 when the jackhammer he was operating as part of a detainee work program struck a power...

It takes a system.(Wall Street)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... To many enthusiasts of capitalism, one of its great virtues is that it ruthlessly punishes inefficiency and incompetence. The New York Times recently noted a curious exception to this rule: Wall Street. Dow Kim, co-president of Merrill...

Heritage Foundation still won't set you free.(United States economic conditions)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... We just received our review copy of the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom, the annual ode to meaningless statistics and ideological blather put out by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. Economist John Miller has eviscerated the...

Would you like a diploma with that?(McDonald's Corp.'s employee education )(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... The British government will allow McDonald's to offer its employees credit toward a high school diploma for its workplace training programs, the Associated Press reported recently. Business advocates regard the policy as an important step...

Ampersand.(the short run)(Cartoon)
January 1, 2008... HOW BOB'S GREAT-GRANDPARENTS GOT INTO THE USA. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HOW BOB'S GRANDPARENTS BECAME HOMEOWNERS. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HOW BOB'S DAD BEGAN HIS CAREER. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HOW BOB'S PARENTS BECAME...

For the right of return: a flood of resistance is rising in New Orleans.
January 1, 2008... Encampments of the homeless continue to thrive under overpasses and inside abandoned courtyards in New Orleans, while the city, state, and federal governments are planning to destroy four large public housing projects that could be sheltering...

Housing (accountability) gap in Mississippi: federal Katrina reconstruction funds are not making their way to low- and moderate-income residents--as far as we can tell.(making sense)
January 1, 2008... In late 2005 and 2006, Congress appropriated about $5.5 billion to assist the state of Mississippi with its Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts. The funds were made available through the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program...

Don't blame the minimum wage: an economist writes to a young woman who lost her job after the minimum wage was increased in her state.
January 1, 2008... Dear ______: I'm so sorry you lost your job. I know how hard you worked and doubt very much that your employer was dissatisfied with your work. But I do not believe that the reason you lost your job was the increase in your state's minimum...

Stormier weather: the economic recovery that's been officially underway since late 2001 is probably over--too bad many Americans never got to experience it.
January 1, 2008... It's not only radical economists and cyberspace Cassandras uttering the "r"-word nowadays. Just what are we to make of it when Harvard economists, The Economist magazine, and Morgan Stanley, followed by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, say the...

Inequality: bad for your health; An interview with social epidemiologist Ichiro Kawachi.
January 1, 2008... How do you stay healthy? That's a no brainer, right? Eat the right foods, exercise, quit smoking, get regular medical checkups. Epidemiologist Ichiro Kawachi wants to add a new item to the list: live in a relatively egalitarian society....

From NAFTA to the SPP: here comes the Security and Prosperity Partnership. But--what security, and whose prosperity?(North American Free Trade Agreement, Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America )
January 1, 2008... Which is closer to your vision of North America? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Vision A: Three interdependent countries with vibrant social movements, respect for labor rights, and environmentally sustainable economies anchored in provision...

Ask Dr. Dollar.(poverty)(Column)
January 1, 2008... Dear Dr. Dollar: I hear all kinds of views about poverty in the developing world from different corners of the media. One minute you can get the impression that a huge swell is lifting everyone up and that millions of people in Asia are no...