Dollars & Sense articles from November 2007

Dollars & Sense archives from November 2007

From the editors.(Editorial)
November 1, 2007... Recently, the public radio call-in program "On Point" examined stormclouds in the U.S. economy, including the subprime mortgage debacle, the credit crisis, and the falling dollar. Selected, we presume, to offer contrasting viewpoints, the...

Private funding preferred.(Consumer Product Safety Commission's Hal Stratton and Nancy Nord)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... The former and current heads of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) are under fire for accepting travel junkets paid for by the industries they're charged with regulating, which includes just about everything on store shelves from...

ICE to freeze bank profits?(the short run)(Immigration and Customs Enforcement)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... In the face of the subprime mortgage crisis, it turns out that making home loans to undocumented immigrants might be a safe bet for banks and other lenders--at least for now. So-called ITIN mortgages, which are obtained with individual taxpayer...

Big brother seeks ad revenue.(Pudding Media Inc.'s service)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... These days, many people find it easier to send an e-mail than to pick up the telephone, and e-mails often yield a quicker response. Yet a new venture could encourage Americans to speak to each other again. Pudding Media, Inc., plans to offer...

Facebook.gov.(online personal information collected by website)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Who's looking at your Facebook page? If your visitors include Big Brother, don't say you weren't warned. You no longer have to be a college student to set up a page on the social networking giant, but you must sign on to a "Privacy Policy"...

(Labor) strife in Iran.(Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company's workers in protest)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... News you probably haven't heard about Iran lately: workers at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company are on strike. The workers are demanding back wages and the right to labor representation, among other basic rights, according to laboreducator.org...

Financial tip: reside near champion sports teams.(Jordan's Furniture's promise refunds if Boston Red Sox wins)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... The denizens of Boston-based Dollars & Sense were glad to support the hometown Red Sox on their path to winning the 2007 World Series. However, the players weren't the only ones to win big with another world championship--regular folks...

Ampersand.(the short run)(Cartoon)
November 1, 2007... HISTORY MARCHES ON; NATIVISM MARCHES IN PLACE [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] amptoons.com

Oil-palm plantations on Afro-Colombian lands: an exchange.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... We received the following letter from the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, in response to our article on the devastating effects of the expanding palm oil industry on Afro-Colombian communities of the Pacific coast ("Blood on the Palms,"...

The Fed and America's distorted expansion.(comment)(Federal Reserve Board)
November 1, 2007... The U.S. economy has been in expansion mode since November 2001. Though of reasonable duration, the expansion has been fragile and unbalanced. Now, with the subprime mortgage crisis and the ongoing deflation of the house price bubble, there are...

Acting in the big picture: new study guide builds on history, hope.(Study, Think, Act, Respond Together)
November 1, 2007... Social change requires a large number of open-minded, concerned people to develop into highly committed, effective activists. Agents of change need a foundation of knowledge, a theoretical framework that integrates this knowledge, and the...

Inequality worsens across Asia, Wall Street Journal cheers.(report on economic inequality)
November 1, 2007... When ideologues of global capitalism step out of line, who better to let them know about it than the editors of the Wall Street Journal, the keepers of the free-market flame? Just ask the economists and policy wonks at the Asian Development...

(Mis)understanding a banking industry in transition: under deregulation the industry became dysfunctional--but economists still won't revise their anti-regulation script.
November 1, 2007... The U.S. financial system is, once again, in crisis. Or, more precisely, twin crises--first, huge numbers of defaults among subprime mortgage borrowers, and second, massive losses for the holders of new-fangled investments comprised of bundles...

Dreams and borders: looking at immigration from the Mexican side. Third in a three-part series.
November 1, 2007... The raid came on a Friday night. Law enforcement officials swooped down on hundreds of undocumented immigrants who had not made it far past the border. That's when "the American dream," as so many migrants call it without irony, ended for over...

Conscripted by poverty: providing economic alternatives has been key to the successful demobilization of nearly 30,000 child soldiers in eastern Congo.
November 1, 2007... Ronaldo is covered with a thin layer of sawdust. As the sun sets over a hilltop woodshop in eastern Congo, the 16 year old takes a moment to rest, wiping his brow with a cloth. He's been sawing all day, cutting wood for chairs, tables and...

A window into revolution.(Benjamin Dangl, The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia )(Book review)
November 1, 2007... Benjamin Dangl, The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press, 2007), 226 pp., $15.95. In June 2007, I visited Bolivia's windswept altiplano, where altitude competes with views of Andean peaks to take your...

War spending placed above domestic priorities.(economy in numbers)
November 1, 2007... Claiming the mantle of fiscal discipline, President Bush has threatened to veto domestic spending bills for fiscal year 2008 that exceed his budget request. His threat cannot be justified by a claim that Congress is being unusually profligate:...