Dollars & Sense articles from July 2006

Dollars & Sense archives from July 2006

From the editors.(Editorial)
July 1, 2006... Dollars & Sense is a cooperative--a fact that we don't make a big deal about on a day-to-day basis. Our operations are not unlike those of any small business: we have customers to keep happy, vendors to negotiate with, creditors to pay off. Yet...

Mass incarceration continues apace.(the short run)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... The number of people incarcerated in the United States increased by 2.6% in the year ending June 30, 2005, according to a recently released Department of Justice report. Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates a week over that year,...

Private prison play.(the short run)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Want to know what it's like to own a prison? As reported recently on ZNet, "Prison Tycoon," a video game by Valu-Soft/THQ, promises you will "Be the Big Man of the Big House." Promotional materials explain: "Private prisons have become the new...

Minimum wage vs. maximum profit.(the short run)(the raise in the minimum wage would lead to job losses)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... In June the Republican-run Senate rejected yet another proposal to increase the federal minimum wage, currently $5.15 an hour. This was the Democrats' ninth attempt to raise the minimum wage since 1997. Republican legislators insisted that...

"Is Qatar the next Dubai?".(the short run)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Puzzled by this recent headline from the New York Times? Perhaps you were not aware that the emirate of Dubai is the "bling-bedecked Cinderella story of the travel industry." But with attractions like SUV trips around the desert, falconry, and...

Somerville--the next New Hampshire?(the short run)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... News for those with more modest travel budgets: Inspired by soaring oil prices, New Hampshire's bureau of tourism took out a full-page ad in the Boston Globe in June. "Where can you go on one tank of gas?" the ad asked. "Anywhere in New...

Marketing moms.(the short run)(Procter & Gamble Co. markets products by paying mothers to help promote the product)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Some people were alarmed by Peter Weir's 1998 movie "The Truman Show," in which Jim Carrey's character lives in a world contrived by the media, pocked with product placements and subliminal advertising. Others, like Proctor & Gamble Company's...

The Gulf Gulf.(the short run)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... The government of Iran has banned the distribution of The Economist because the magazine published a map with the Persian Gulf labeled simply as "the Gulf." The Iranian government views any deviation from the "Persian Gulf" appellation, such as...

Trouser trouble.(the short run)(dressing of the spectators in the last worl cup tournament)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... An incident at the recent World Cup competition reaffirmed the power of advertisers in sports. On June 16th, about 1,000 fans watched a match between the Netherlands and Cote d'Ivoire at a Stuttgart stadium in their underpants because their...

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

Globalization: good for what ails you?(UP AGAINST THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
July 1, 2006... Got a problem with a corrupt, inefficient government? Does economic growth in your country just limp along? Try globalization, neoliberal globalization that is. Rapid growth and good government are sure to follow. That is not some online...

Medicaid and Medicare cuts: (almost) everyone pays.(making sense)
July 1, 2006... Unless you belong to the select and dwindling group of those with fully employer-paid health coverage--or to the 40-million-and-counting with no health insurance at all--you've probably noticed your health insurance premiums rising at a...

Dangerous academics: could David Horowitz's "Academic Bill of Rights" improve economics education?(comment)
July 1, 2006... This spring, Princeton undergraduates voted, by a slim margin, in favor of a "Student Bill of Rights." The declaration "affirm[s] the importance of the principles of academic freedom and intellectual diversity within the University community"...

Other economies are possible! Special collaboration with Grassroots Economic Organizing: organizing toward an economy of cooperation and solidarity.
July 1, 2006... Can thousands of diverse, locally-rooted, grassroots economic projects form the basis for a viable democratic alternative to capitalism? It might seem unlikely that a motley array of initiatives such as worker, consumer, and housing...

Venezuela's cooperative revolution.
July 1, 2006... Zaida Rosas, a woman in her fifties with 15 grandchildren, works in the newly constructed textile co-op Venezuela Avanza in Caracas. The co-op's 209 workers are mostly formerly jobless neighborhood women. Their homes on the surrounding steep...

The solidarity economy.
July 1, 2006... A MAP OF THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY Because solidarity economics is more of a strategic organizing process than a specific economic model, developing "maps" of the solidarity economy landscape is crucial to the movement. Such maps can serve to...

African-American economic solidarity.(Chronology)
July 1, 2006... The Federation of Southern Cooperatives (see bottom of pp. 22-23) and the Common Ground Collective are using cooperative, community-based activities in their efforts to help Katrina survivors and rebuild neighborhoods across the Gulf region....

Colors: a new democratic worker cooperative restaurant challenges the industry.(COOPERATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES: COLORS)
July 1, 2006... In the fall of 2005, COLORS restaurant opened in the heart of Greenwich Village, in New York City. In an elegant setting with Bauhaus and Art Deco touches, COLORS offers a creative seasonal menu based on favorite family recipes of its staff,...

The Anti-Displacement Project.(COOPERATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES: THE ANTI-DISPLACEMENT PROJECT)
July 1, 2006... A unique community economy built by low-income workers has been evolving in western Massachusetts. The Anti-Displacement Project (A-DP) in Springfield is a nonprofit that serves as an umbrella for institutions and projects organized by...

Building a farmer-labor alliance: Solidarity Harvest and Union Supported Agriculture.(COOPERATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES: SOLIDARITY HARVEST)
July 1, 2006... Like their counterparts elsewhere across the United States, Maine's industrial workers and small farmers are isolated from one another, engaged in parallel efforts to survive in the face of a corporate-dominated economy. The state's industrial...

Federation of Southern Cooperatives' Disaster Relief Program.(COOPERATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES: FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN COOPERATIVES' DISASTER RELIEF PROGRAM)
July 1, 2006... Hurricane Katrina presented rural communities in the South with an enormous challenge. The storm destroyed thousands of acres of cropland and demolished already inadequate rural infrastructure. Farmers saw their most reliable markets disappear...

Mobile food Co-ops for New Orleans.(COOPERATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES: NEW ORLEANS FOOD CO-OP)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... New Orleans is a risky place to locate a grocery store today. The city's population is half its pre-Katrina level, unevenly distributed, and highly unpredictable. Some neighborhoods may see widespread bulldozing and redevelopment, while others...

Minding the Timor Gap: billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues are at stake as Australia continues to bully East Timor out of its undersea energy resources.
July 1, 2006... The outbreak of violent clashes between government forces and disgruntled former military personnel put East Timor,* one of the world's newest nations, into the headlines this spring. East Timor achieved full independence in 2002 after nearly...

Framing economic justice: excerpts from two new books offer alternative ways to promote progressive economic policies.(Excerpt)
July 1, 2006... Since the Democrats' loss in 2004, many liberals and progressives have turned their attention to "framing"--how to define and explain issues so as to appeal to the public. Conservatives' apparent success with framing has run the gamut from...

U.S. military spending and the cost of the wars.(economy in numbers)
July 1, 2006... For the past several years, the annual inflation-adjusted budget of the Department of Defense has been higher than the Cold War average of $342.4 billion per year (see Figure 1). The peaks in the early 1950s, the late 1960s, and the...