Dollars & Sense articles from July 2007

Dollars & Sense archives from July 2007

From the editors.
July 1, 2007... Although we always strive to balance the depressing with the encouraging, some issues of the magazine just seem to fill up with bad news--and this is one of them. But here's one recent bright spot: the failure of the Comprehensive Immigration...

Corn/oil.(the short run)(ethanol)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... President Bush flew to Brazil in March, checking up on ethanol exports that will complement his plan to up U.S. biofuel production to 35 billion gallons a year. Brazilian activists aren't so enthusiastic, reports Earth First! magazine. Upon...

Tech neck.(the short run)(spas)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... With new Blackberry models circulating every few months and sales continually increasing, it comes as no surprise that its users are seeking treatment. No, not for their text-message addiction or incessant low battery, but instead for their...

Teaching luxury.(the short run)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... India's recent economic reforms have done much for its upper class. The number of millionaires is increasing at an astounding rate of 12.8% a year. Consumption is skyrocketing, the retail sector is experiencing huge growth, and Indians (the...

Front page real estate.(the short run)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... The fashion industry trade journal Women's Wear Daily has joined the ranks of major publications selling advertising space on their front pages, according to the New York Times. Front-cover space comes at a hefty price. The space is sold as...

Health and terror.(the short run)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... You may have heard that Michael Moore has faced a Treasury Department investigation in connection with his recently released film Sicko. It seems that by bringing several 9/11 relief workers who are suffering severe respiratory ailments to Cuba...

McDefinition.(the short run)(McDonald's USA and publisher's Oxford English Dictionary on McJob)
July 1, 2007... McDonald's has recently opened up a campaign in the UK against the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for its definition of "McJob." The OED defines a "McJob" as "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the...

ICEcapades.(the short run)(Immigration and Customs Enforcement )(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... The Woodfin Hotel in Emeryville, Calif., is at the center of a political corruption scandal that has erupted in the middle of a long labor dispute. According to the Bay Area bilingual newspaper El Reportero, the hotel's president, a Republican...

Ampersand.(the short run)(Cartoon)
July 1, 2007... amptoons.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Globalized resistance: at the G-8 summit, activists refine their tactics.(active culture)(Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army)
July 1, 2007... The movement against corporate globalization is serious about clowning around. "The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army" led some of the incursions in the most recent globalization battle, which took place in June at the Group of Eight...

Twice as many die: scrutinizing Bush's duplicitous new AIDS plan.(comment)
July 1, 2007... The United States, the rest of the G-8 group of industrialized nations, and the U.N. General Assembly have all committed to achieving virtually universal access to AIDS treatment worldwide by 2010. This means providing antiretroviral therapy to...

Three million Americans are debt poor.(making sense)
July 1, 2007... Signs of the debt crisis facing a growing number of U.S. households are not hard to find. The subprime lending debacle, with its mushrooming rates of mortgage default and foreclosure, has been front-page news for months--perhaps because it has...

Wolfowitz and the World Bank: a temporary farce, but a continuing tragedy.(making sense)
July 1, 2007... For many on the left, the departure of Paul Wolfowitz from his position as head of the World Bank was cause for celebration. To see one of the architects of a vicious, illegal war brought down by a conflict-of-interest scandal that would...

Coming clean on class conflict.(UP AGAINST THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
July 1, 2007... Ever had any doubts that class conflict is what drives the economy? Check out the story the Wall Street Journal ran this June about how wage gains for workers will puncture the ebullience of the markets. The Journal article describes...

Bumpy landing: rough ride continues as economy slows.
July 1, 2007... Landing a plane is tricky business. A pilot must contend with a host of variables--weather, visibility, runway conditions, and air traffic--to make a safe landing. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The same holds for landing an economy, according...

The social costs of neoliberalism in China: interview with economist Han Deqiang.(Interview)
July 1, 2007... Han Deqiang is a prolific economist at the Economics and Management School, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and one of a growing number of Chinese scholars critical of the country's neoliberal development strategy. Han,...

Blood on the palms: Afro-Colombians fight new plantations.
July 1, 2007... On Sept. 7, 2006, paramilitary gunmen invaded the home of Juan de Dios Garcia, a community leader in the Colombian city of Buenaventura. Garcia escaped, but the gunmen shot and killed seven members of his family. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Imprisoned in low wages: limited access to education for people in prison leads to economic exclusion.(economy in numbers)
July 1, 2007... It's tough to get an education in prison. People in prison tend to start with lower educational levels than the general population, and spending time behind bars generally makes matters worse. Because schooling is a major factor in earnings...

Ask Dr. Dollar.
July 1, 2007... Dear Dr. Dollar: When economists argue that the outsourcing of jobs might be a plus for the U.S. economy, they often mention the idea of comparative advantage. So free trade would allow the United States to specialize in higher-end...