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August 12, 2015

Embassy to Rome

In 155 BCE Rome fined Athens 500 talents for the sacking of Oropus. This was a huge amount for Athens to pay, so they sent the leading philosophers

April 19, 2015

A lot of school lunches

An audit of the U.S. military’s spending in Afghanistan has revealed that a whopping $45 billion is unaccounted for. – Full Story From a post I

April 4, 2014

On Sunflowers, Sunlight, and Sovereignty

中文翻譯 The occupation, by several hundred students, of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan on March 18th, and the subsequent birth of what has been called the

September 22, 2012

Blaming the feminazis

The NY Times reports some on some “really alarming trends in life expectancy” among poor whites: The decline among the least educated non-Hispanic

September 15, 2012

#CTUStrike FAQ

What is at stake in the Chicago Teachers Union strike? Here are some links to articles I’ve found useful/interesting in the form of a FAQ. I will

September 4, 2012

China in Africa

Found here, via Michael Turton

September 1, 2012

We Built It

[Chart via Kevin Drum.]

May 4, 2012

要怎樣讓美國不再特別:基礎篇

Translated from Unexceptionalism: A Primer, By E. L. Doctorow. Thanks to the anonymous translator.

December 26, 2011

Moral Hazard

Writing in the WSJ about a program to provide food security to India’s poor, Rupa Subramanya reveals her ideological bias in towards the end of the

March 28, 2009

Crossroads

Photo by Ereine Former Clinton White House adviser and prominent blogger, Brad DeLong says: “We have to ask ourselves: Do we want to revive our

October 1, 2008

Toxic Sludge

In my last post I attempted to make sense of the origins of the current economic crisis in the subprime mortgage debacle. In this post I look at the

October 1, 2008

Subprime

This post is the first of my attempts to make sense for myself of the current financial crisis. In this post I ask the question: How did we get into

January 6, 2008

Recession

I forget where I read that looking at how often the word “recession” appears in the newspaper is as good a method as any of determining whether we

December 23, 2007

Geothermal

Speaking of Iceland … one of the coolest things about the country is how well they’ve used geothermal energy: In Iceland, there are five major

December 17, 2007

Big Table

For those who haven’t been following, Obama’s been doing his best to alienate the progressive left. That’s resulted in him butting heads with two of

November 16, 2007

Usury

If thou lend money to any of My people, even to the poor with thee, thou shalt not be to him as a creditor; neither shall ye lay upon him interest.

November 7, 2007

$ v. €

Paul Krugman points us to the latest economic indicators

October 18, 2007

Stagnation

From Krugman’s blog: One of the big but little-noticed economic stories of the past few years is the sharp slowdown in US productivity growth. Dean

August 24, 2007

One America

The text of John Edward’s Hanover speech reprinted in full (via Crooked Timber): Remarks as Prepared for Delivery: “To Build One America, End the

August 20, 2007

Prices

Almost every night the news features at least one story about rising commodity prices. A few extra cents for spinach or milk might not seem earth

June 20, 2007

GDP vs. US States

Via Strange Maps, a chart/map showing US States renamed with the names of countries where the GDP is similar to that of those states. {maps, GDP}

May 17, 2007

Illiteracy

A few weeks ago Victor Mair wrote a guest post on Language Log implying that China’s high rates of illiteracy could be cured by reforming the

May 12, 2007

Disenfranchised

The following quotes and chart were culled from Jason DeParle’s New York Review of Books article, “The American Prison Nightmare.” The issue has

May 4, 2007

Employment Rate

Wikipedia lists some problems with the current method of calculating the unemployment rate in the US. These include the fact that 1.5% of the

March 20, 2007

Health care

I haven’t been doing much John Edwards blogging since he announced his candidacy, but back in February I had bookmarked two articles about Edwards’

December 29, 2006

Make-believe

Steve Benen, who is guest blogging over at Political Animal, quotes John Edwards answering a question as to whether he would give balancing the

December 20, 2006

Inequality Roundup

I’ve been delinquent in writing up the half a dozen stories on global inequality which I’ve been meaning to blog about, so here they all are in one

November 20, 2006

Big Mac

How long does the average worker have to labor before they can afford to purchase a Big Mac at McDonald’s? A recent study compiled the data for

November 20, 2006

Oversight

Charles Miller makes an important point: As such, it still baffles me that a week later, the news is blanketed with Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, Iraq and

October 24, 2006

Sideshow

Here is a challenge for the English language blogs here in Taiwan: Write something about economic inequality in Taiwan without getting sidetracked

October 13, 2006

Debt Hemorrhage

Over at Political Animal, Jacob Hacker is blogging about his new book The Great Risk Shift. In a recent post he answered the question: Is increased

September 24, 2006

Health Care Economics

Krugman’s latest: Between 2000 and 2005, the number of Americans with private health insurance coverage fell by 1 percent. But over the same

September 1, 2006

Party Economics

There has been an interesting debate on the web about whether or not short-term swings in US electoral politics make much of a difference to

July 28, 2006

London

Shashwati and I are planning a research trip to London this summer (for the film), and more than culture shock, we are preparing for price shock.

July 24, 2006

Oligarchy

Having just complained about the Times habit of writing as if the poor didn’t exist, suddenly I find two articles that would make you think the

July 23, 2006

Stupid Shoppers

This is a general shout-out to all the stupid people out there: Thank you! Thank you for buying your memory from Apple (or purchasing a black

July 17, 2006

Tooth Fairy

When I was a kid the tooth fairy only gave me a quarter, this site says the going rate is a dollar, but this news story has me thinking that

July 10, 2006

Waste

Via BoingBoing, a lecture by veteran print journalist Tom Stites who explains why “less affluent Americans have abandoned newspapers and are angry

June 12, 2006

Porgera

Fellow Savage Mind, Alex Golub, was interviewed extensively for this excellent article in the Ottawa Citizen about conflict between a Canadian

June 10, 2006

Herring

I’m inclined to agree with Jonathan Freedland when he argues that the gay marriage amendment is little more than a red herring. This is backed up by

April 21, 2006

Suspended Animation

Last year I had an opportunity in New York to hear a report from Robert Weil, the author of Red Cat, White Cat, who had just come back from China

April 13, 2006

Globalizations

More proof that the New York Review of Books should hire me as a writer. Just after I wrote my post on “capitalisms” I came across this NYRB article

April 6, 2006

Employment Protection

At the heart of France’s protests are efforts to reform the labor market. In light of that it is worth reading this article by Mark Weisbrot: The

March 30, 2006

Relative Deprivation

One topic I discuss a lot here on Keywords is inequality, but one thing I’ve never thought about before I read this New Yorker article is proposing

March 27, 2006

Landlocked

For developing countries, being landlocked poses a special burden: Consider these statistics. Outside of western and central Europe, the average

March 26, 2006

106 Houses!

Last night Shashwati and I called Roxy in Chharanager and heard some terrific news. (Skype’s conference calling feature is amazing!) Just after New

March 14, 2006

Crème de la Crème

I earlier suggested we should adopt India’s practice of referring to the better off segments of society as “the creamy layer,” but Krugman’s latest

January 31, 2006

The Other Half

An important new group blog has been launched. Here is a statement from one of the inaugural posts on the blog How the Other Half Lives: In this

January 22, 2006

Suicide

In 2004 I wrote that rural poverty, rather than a rejection of communalist policies, was largely responsible for throwing the BJP out of power in

January 7, 2006

Mujhe Mat Maro Saab

Two days ago we filmed a protest play performed by the Budhan Theatre in front of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad. The play

November 18, 2005

Ghost Town

This amazing map, “based on more than 40,000 postings on Internet ‘safe lists’ by Katrina survivors” and documenting the migration of a small

November 14, 2005

Beveridge vs. Bismarck

Taiwanese love to complain about their country and how it is going down the drain. And they also like to idealize how much more advanced and modern

November 12, 2005

第一賣冰

There is an old saying in Taiwan: “The number one job is selling ice desserts and the number two is being a doctor.” I personally wonder just how

November 9, 2005

Paperclip

What I want to know is, when Kyle gets his house, will he trade it to me for a red paperclip? (via BoingBoing) {barter, house, paperclip}

October 30, 2005

Digital Bollywood

For years there has been talk about how Hollywood would abandon celluloid once and for all, digitally transmitting films directly to movie theaters.

October 21, 2005

Legal Fiction

Jeffrey Rosen called Chicago law professor Richard Epstein the “intellectual guru” of a movement to “resurrect the Constitution in Exile,” meaning

October 12, 2005

Clinical Trials

I’m a huge fan of director Fernando Meirelles after seeing City of God, and I wasn’t disappointed with his breakthrough Hollywood movie, The

October 1, 2005

Brooklyn to Pristina

I haven’t yet seen the new movie Lord of War, where Nicholas Cage plays an international arms dealer, but I have seen POV’s excellent documentary

October 1, 2005

Community Access TV

OK, I’ll admit that I consider most community access television shows to be a joke, especially Rabbi Mordechai Friedman’s “Judaism, The Series”

September 20, 2005

Katrina’s Poor

It’s been so long since my roundup on race, poverty and Katrina, that a new post is needed. First, some hard numbers on poverty in New Orleans, how

September 15, 2005

Hooch and Hamlet

This December, Shashwati and I are going to India to shoot a documentary film about the residents of one city’s slum who are using theatre to fight

September 11, 2005

Davis-Bacon

I’m really at a loss for words. What the victims of Katrina need most right now are jobs to help them get back on their feet. The best bet would be

September 4, 2005

Super Girls

I’ve been meaning to blog about “Super Girls” for a while, fortunately, Frank Dai has done such a good round-up of Super Girls coverage that I don’t

September 3, 2005

Help ACORN!

What is ACORN? the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation’s largest community organization of low- and

September 2, 2005

Looting

(Via Left I on the News, who has additional comments.) {katrina}

September 2, 2005

SS Deep Dixie

I earlier referred to Amardeep’s post on issues of race in the coverage of Katrina: First, have you noticed that numerous articles refer to the

September 2, 2005

Displacement

The largest displacement of Americans since the Civil War reverberated across the country from its starting point in New Orleans yesterday, as more

August 30, 2005

R & D

This Foreign Affairs article by George J. Gilboy focuses on trade between China and the U.S., but it has some good news for Taiwan. I remember

August 30, 2005

R & D

This Foreign Affairs article by George J. Gilboy focuses on trade between China and the U.S., but it has some good news for Taiwan. I remember

August 29, 2005

Eat the Sun

A sixth of the world’s population lives on less than a dollar a day. Most of these 1.2 billion people are women, and they spend a significant amount

August 28, 2005

Hong Kong v. Bollywood

Writing in the Asia Times, Zafar Anjum explores why China’s film industry has netted so much love from Hollywood, while India hasn’t produced a

August 26, 2005

Kaohsiung

Seems that violent worker protests aren’t unique to China, and “Made in Taiwan” does not ensure that something is made under humane working

August 11, 2005

’Allo, ’Allo

From The Christian Science Monitor, English is increasingly the language of French businesses: In a recent survey of 26 of France’s largest

August 11, 2005

74,000 Protests

What is interesting about this story from the Washington Post isn’t the sheer number of Chinese engaged in (often violent) protests against the

July 9, 2005

TV Dads

While Kevin Drum is worrying about “Doofus Dad Syndrome,” he’s missing the bigger picture. It may be true that today’s TV dad’s are more likely to

July 3, 2005

Live8

I didn’t see the concert, but I’ve been following responses on the blogsphere. Here are some highlights: Ethan Zukerman wonders whether the whole

July 2, 2005

Anglo Saxon Laborers

The opposite-of-indubitable Tom Friedman has been raving about Ireland lately. How rich it is, and now how its labor system should be admired for

June 25, 2005

Squatter Cities

Squatter City is a blog devoted to bringing attention to scenes like this all over the world, where urban slums are being “cleared” often

June 23, 2005

What’s happening in Kashipur? [Invited Post]

This post is by filmmaker Vinod Raja. On the 25th May I was attacked while filming a peaceful rally by the Kue Kondhs, an Adivasi (tribal) community

June 20, 2005

Fire Carriage

China is seeking to privatize its rail system. Considering what a mess that has made of rail systems just about everywhere else, I can’t imagine

June 15, 2005

Out-House

I’ve long believed that the main purpose of outsourcing is not to save money by finding cheaper labor, but to save money by keeping labor costs down

June 8, 2005

Frivolity

So the middle classes are knee high in debt because their kids need iPods and fancy cell phones. Right? Wrong: My biggest criticism of the Times

June 7, 2005

Growth

Frequent readers of Keywords will know that I am obsessed about the issue of inequality. One of the frequent arguments put forward by conservatives

June 2, 2005

Okrent

So long Daniel Okrent. I can’t say I care. I never learned anything from his pieces, and I can’t say he did much to affect editorial decisions at

June 1, 2005

The Anti-Clinton

John Edwards is guest blogging over at the new TPM Cafe web site. If I was luke warm about him as a presidential candidate, all that has changed. He

May 17, 2005

Commodity Fetishism

Over at Savage Minds I have a post about consumerism and inequality. Here is a taste: Unfortunately, today’s anthropologists seem to be

May 10, 2005

InfoFlags

A team of artists from Brazil and Portugal has produced this wonderful series of flags-as-infographics, discussing pressing social issues. Here is

May 3, 2005

Food Stamps

More of New York City’s working poor are using food stamps: Even as welfare rolls have dropped, food stamp use has increased over the last few

May 1, 2005

Oldicaid

Uggabugga on Bush’s Social Security reform: {bush, social security}

April 27, 2005

Olympics

Why is New York City spending millions of dollars advertising the Olympics to its own citizens? I’m sick and tired of seeing ads for the Olympics

April 19, 2005

Public Spending

There has been a fair amount of discussion lately about how nationalized health care actually works better than the crazy system we have here in the

April 16, 2005

Debt Ownership Society

A recent compendium and analysis of U.S. labor market statistics, the State of Working America, has some interesting data that is relevant to the

April 14, 2005

Paris Hilton

I’m sick and tired of all these attacks on Paris Hilton! She is not simply some rich heiress who can be used as a convenient excuse not to repeal

April 14, 2005

Crowley

Even though the new bankruptcy law will hit New Yorkers harder than the population as a whole, New York congressman Joseph Crowley was one of 73

April 14, 2005

Alternatives

In discussing public policy, most pundits would have us believe that our only choices are: A. government regulation. Or, B. the free market. The

April 12, 2005

MoveOn Moves

I suppose late is better than never, but MoveOn has finally decided to get onboard with the fight against the bankruptcy bill — the day before the

April 12, 2005

Queue

Ted Barlow reprises an old post about health care, and it is still just as relevant. Nothing new here: the Europeans do it better, our system is

April 4, 2005

Expendable

The hunger strike by students supporting a guaranteed living wage at Georgetown was a success. According to the DC labor web site (where I can no

March 31, 2005

Contracts

I don’t know what it is about bankruptcy law. It seems really difficult to get any kind of traction on this issue. Most people understand that the

March 27, 2005

Discrepancies

Nathan Newman asks why the Republicans aren’t planning on fixing racial differences in health care, when they have so recently been willing to

March 21, 2005

Finance

Campaign Contributions from the Finance/Credit Industry to Current Senators, ’99-’04 An analysis of the contributions shows that senators who voted

March 18, 2005

ISBN

When I travelled in mainland China in the late 80s there was a black market in currency, trading government issued currency specially printed for

March 14, 2005

HR 685

I never liked Congressman Crawley, our congressman from Queens, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that he is one of the cosponsors of House bill H.R.

March 11, 2005

Bankruptcy Bill Update

As the bankruptcy bill passes in the Senate, with a vote of 74-25 (Hillary Clinton abstaining because of her husband’s surgery). But the fight isn’t

March 9, 2005

Bankruptcy Roundup

A special Roundup just on the Bankruptcy Bill: Elizabeth Warren, professor at Harvard Law, and frequent commentator on Now, has teamed up with Josh

March 9, 2005

Usury

Kevin Drum is at a lost to understand why there is such wide support (in Congress) for the bankruptcy bill. He need look no further than the recent

March 8, 2005

Jonquiere

Facing the threat of unionization, Wal-Mart closed its Jonquiere, Quebec store rather than pay its employees living wages and benefits. The Canadian

March 6, 2005

Complexity

One of the biggest problems with political activists — wherever they lie on the left-right spectrum — is the tendency to oversimplify. This is

March 5, 2005

MetroCard

This is a little late, but I’ve been meaning to blog about the recent MTA fare hike. Actually, unlike previous fare hikes, they didn’t raise the

February 26, 2005

Roundup

Around the web: Who the heck is Kurban Said? Every Calvin and Hobbes (via Incoming Signals) Fascinating Occupations Seven Mistakes Superheroines

February 21, 2005

Shake Down

Are Republican leaders trying to shake down the AARP so as to get concessions on social security “reform”? It sure looks that way. House Majority

February 16, 2005

Feta

I’m slightly lactose intolerant, so Feta cheese (and other goat’s milk cheeses) is one of the few cheeses I can enjoy. My favorite kind of Feta is

February 15, 2005

Child Labor

The above is a picture taken by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee in 1909, titled “Photograph of Bibb Mill No. 1, Macon, GA.” The

February 8, 2005

Roundup

From around the web: Google Maps! (via the Map Room) How to fold a map. (Via 43 folders.) AppRocket — looks like Quicksilver for the mac, but for

January 29, 2005

Bigotry

Krugman, after showing that Bush’s “claim that blacks get a bad deal from Social Security is false” (because the higher death rate among blacks is

January 26, 2005

Blistering Barnacles

Since finishing my dissertation and getting back from our trip, I’ve been in “cleanup mode”: not only physically cleaning up my desk which looked

January 12, 2005

Departure

Some random observations from the trip as we prepare to depart from India… Conversation on a street corner: Stranger: Hello sir, what country? Me:

January 6, 2005

Adivasi

India is a settler state, like Australia, the United States, South Africa, Israel, Canada, Taiwan, and many other states where the indigenous

January 5, 2005

Acehnese

Just about a year before the Tsunami struck, I wrote a post on Aceh, decrying human rights abuses in the region. A recent article in the Straits

December 30, 2004

Tsunami

First off — we are fine. We are in the North of India, far away from the disaster zone. Thanks to all those who inquired about our well being, but

November 28, 2004

Luxury

Reporting on the holiday season on NPR, Howard Davidowitz says that luxury items are “flying off the shelves” and upscale retailers Bergdorf Goodman

November 15, 2004

Regression

Dalton Conley has an interesting Op-Ed in the NY Times suggesting that Democrats accept a more regressive taxation system (i.e. taxing sales instead

October 24, 2004

Euro/Euras/Eurue/Eura…

Languaghat has previously covered controversies over how to spell “Euro”, but this latest one is truly hilarious: All official EU texts must be

October 17, 2004

Yellow Peril

I can’t tell you how often I’ve spoken to American middle class liberals whose biggest worry in life seems to be the population explosion amongst

October 12, 2004

Facts

Why wait for tomorrow night when Krugman has already fact-checked the debate today? And don’t miss Kevin Drum’s score card from the last debate.

October 10, 2004

Reading

Kevin Drum points to two very important articles (actually four, since the second one contains three parts). These are both really worth your time,

October 3, 2004

Press Release

In Brazil the gangs send a press release before invading another favela

September 18, 2004

Labor Lobbyists

Mark Schmitt recalls being asked the question: “Do any of you seriously believe that it is possible to have a real progressive movement in this

September 17, 2004

Najaf Treat

The first day after 9-11 my Shashwati and I, worried by stories we had heard about a racist backlash, went to eat at our local Afghan kabob house to

September 13, 2004

Three Americas?

Republicans don’t live in John Edwards’ “two Americas” — they live in a third America, less polarized, where outside information doesn’t get

September 5, 2004

Predatory Lending

When I lived in North Philadelphia, check cashing places (which charge nearly 300% interest) were the only businesses I saw in the poorer

August 27, 2004

Mono No Aware

In September of last year Jonathon Delacour wrote eloquently about the role of “sadness” in Japanese aesthetics: It’s this “aesthetic empathy of

August 24, 2004

527s vs. 501(c)4

There has been a lot of talk about how hypocritical Bush is for asking Kerry to disavow 527s (such as MoveOn.org). As Nick Confessore writes: If

August 22, 2004

BCCI

The fact that George W Bush borrowed money from BCCI in 1987 but John Kerry launched the investigation in 1988 that eventually brought them down

August 14, 2004

Savings

If you start knowing that “Wealthier people derive more of their income from returns on saving—both in dollar terms and as a proportion of

August 12, 2004

Risk

Jacob Hacker has a sort of preview of his next book in The New Republic, and I think he is most clearly saying the big thing that needs to be said

August 7, 2004

Top 10

Top Ten Post-War Contractors Ranked by Total Contract Value in Iraq and Afghanistan From 2002 through July 1, 2004 Kellogg, Brown & Root

July 19, 2004

Graphology

What does it say about our society that some of our largest and most powerful firms, including financial giants such as Merrill Lynch and

July 15, 2004

Outsourcing Revisited

Here is an idea for India: Instead of taking jobs away from Americans, offer low-paid call-center jobs in India to Americans looking for adventure,

June 22, 2004

Profits

Nathan Newman has an excellent post about the reality behind the “economic recovery.” First, he quotes from The Economist: … for many Americans the

June 22, 2004

URGENT

REQUEST FOR URGENT FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIP FIRST, I MUST SOLICIT YOUR STRICTEST CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION. THIS IS BY VIRTUE OF ITS NATURE AS

June 18, 2004

Plea Bargaining

I was watching last night’s Frontline on “The Plea” (you can watch it online starting Monday), and I was struck between the similarity between how

June 6, 2004

Depression

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968 said: When there is massive unemployment in the black community, it is called a social problem. But when there

May 18, 2004

Manmohan Singh

Amardeep Singh has a good profile of the man who looks to be India’s new PM: Manmohan Singh. Manmohan Singh is a Congress-wallah to the core: no

May 18, 2004

Safety

John Fabian Witt asks, Can China protect its workers? China and other developing Asian economies are experiencing an industrial accident crisis of

May 18, 2004

Compensation

A new study finds that total median compensation for CEOs in the S&P 500 rose to $4.6 million last year, a 27% increase from 2002. According to

May 17, 2004

Abramovich

How did one man come to control a reported £5.3bn stake in Sibneft, a state energy provider that only 10 years ago was bequeathed to Russia’s

May 15, 2004

Cyderabad

The NY Times technology section has a good article about some of the reasons the BJP lost the elections: In a country of 180 million households,

May 11, 2004

I am Asian™

It seems that the phrase “I am Asian”™ has been trademarked by McDonald’s®

May 10, 2004

Health Care

A [2003] RAND Health study that is the largest and most comprehensive examination ever conducted of health care quality in the United States found

May 2, 2004

Robber Barron

I enjoyed this post from John & Belle Have a Blog: I see that one W. Folsom has written a book entitled The Myth of the Robber Barons … Well, as a

May 1, 2004

Oil

Tom Dispatch has two very important articles about oil: Saudi promises to cut oil prices (as reported by Bob Woodward) should be taken with a grain

April 28, 2004

Refund

If you filed electronically, you probably already got your refund check, or you will soon. The more money you made last year the more likely you are

April 23, 2004

Slumlords

On the heels of a post in which I highlighted key points from Mike Davis’ account of urban slums as the new face of global poverty, Davis has a new

April 19, 2004

Wishful Thinking

From the Paul Krugman Archives. (Via a comment by Joe Buck on Political Animal.)

April 13, 2004

Slums

Some facts from Mike Davis’ article “Planet Of Slums“: In 1950 there were 86 cities in the world with a population over one million; today there

April 5, 2004

Transparency

As fractured as American democracy is, at least the process allows us to force our government to confront its mistakes, as is now happening with the

March 30, 2004

Migrants

The first time Scott presented to me his argument that English teachers in East Asia should be thought of as economic migrants, I have to admit I

March 26, 2004

Foreigners

A few weeks ago I asked, in regards to US concerns about the offshoring of high-tech jobs, just how many American’s were doing these jobs to begin

March 19, 2004

Offshoring

Charlie Cook, quoted in Donkey Rising, has some important things to say about why we aren’t seeing the creation of new full time jobs in the US: In

March 11, 2004

Taishang

is a composite word combining “Taiwan” and “Shanghai” “Shangye” (meaning business) [thanks to Jonathan for correcting my mistake!] — it

March 10, 2004

Skills

I once had a summer job renovating apartments in New York city. Not having much experience at this kind of thing, my Jamaican co-workers always

March 7, 2004

Anemic

Nathan Newman has posted a very clear graph from The Economist, which clearly shows that our current economic “recovery” is (in the words of the

March 5, 2004

Absolute

Brett at Marstonalia writes, about the income charts I posted earlier: Median income isn’t relevant for everything, of course — it would be nice to

March 5, 2004

Middle

In a recent interview on Now, Doug Henwood discussed just how small the American middle class is, compared with other developed countries:

March 3, 2004

Chinatown

It seems that the Romans don’t like the idea of a Chinatown in Rome. Which is funny, because much of the Italian Market in Philadelphia, and the

February 26, 2004

Stocks

It is hard to see much democracy in the distribution of stock ownership. THe bottom half of the population held 1.4% of total stock in 2001, with an

February 24, 2004

Maid

Barbara Ehrenreich has co-edited a new book: Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy. I haven’t read it yet, but she

February 23, 2004

Poverty

In an excellent Op-Ed in the New York Times David Shipler (who had a Magazine article on the “working poor” in the Times a few weeks ago) writes:

February 23, 2004

Progress

Kevin Drum doesn’t understand why Gregg Easterbrook is confused by the fact that material progress doesn’t bring people greater happiness. I would

February 18, 2004

Scofflaw

About 27,100 Department of Defense (DoD) contractors owe the federal government $3 billion in unpaid taxes, but the Pentagon continues to hire and

February 18, 2004

Library

I almost feel that the NY Public Library system deserves to get its budget cut — they have done such a poor job of using the internet to mobilize

February 17, 2004

Administration

How efficient is America’s privatized health care system? According to Paul Krugman: A recent study found that private insurance companies spend

January 31, 2004

Better

I’ve been following stories about outsourcing to India, and while this one from Wired magazine is one of the least insightful I’ve read, it did have

January 31, 2004

Consistency

Sometimes I wish that conservatives would make an effort to be logically consistent. I suppose some do, but most seem to have no problem switching

January 26, 2004

Housing

Columbus Ohio has a radical idea for dealing with homeless people: give them housing!!! Amazing thing is — it works. Columbus’s story “may foretell

January 18, 2004

Teeth

I often find it painfully tedious to read NY Times stories which try to individualize social problems, but this one, about one woman’s struggle

January 16, 2004

Compassion

“True compassion,” King declared, “is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs

December 28, 2003

Incarceration

The trouble with prison isn’t that it doesn’t work; the trouble is that it doesn’t work very well but does cost a fortune compared with other ways

December 23, 2003

Utilities

A good question: So when did “free trade” come to mean the US dictating to other countries whether they can have publicly-owned utilities?

December 23, 2003

Safety

Even though just about every blog has already covered this, the story is so upsetting, I think it needs to be repeated as often as possible. The

December 16, 2003

Vouchers

Richard D. Kahlenberg and Bernard Wasow have an excellent article on “school choice” in the latest Boston Review New Democracy Forum. First, they

December 11, 2003

Dividend

Does the war in Iraq help to stimulate the U.S. economy? In this City Paper interview, Doug Henwood why it doesn’t. CP: One question I’ve heard a

December 11, 2003

Facts

This article from The Nation, about one reporter’s efforts to try to find the source upon which statistics for job growth in Iraq cited by Rumsfeld

December 8, 2003

Salt

Before embarking on the 240-mile journey from Sabarmati to Dandi, known as the “salt march”, Gandhi sent a letter to the Viceroy: If my letter

December 5, 2003

Accountability

The answer to problems like the Pentagon’s accounting system clearly is not more flexibility — what is needed is more accountability. Accountability

December 1, 2003

Bargains

The New York Times must have turned over a new leaf this holiday season. In just the past few days there have been four excellent Op-Ed

November 26, 2003

Permalinks

How to deal with institutions that simply don’t “get” the internet? In response to a call by Body and Soul, I wrote the L.A. Times and requested

November 25, 2003

Corruption

In my travels in the developing world, I’ve often been struck by how even those who hate the United States for its foreign policy have a very

November 20, 2003

Confederate

Three excellent articles relating to the flap over Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean’s “confederate flag” remark. First, from Paul

November 20, 2003

Turkey

Please consider supporting grocery workers who are on strike–holding the line for health care. More than 80,000 supermarket workers are fighting to

November 14, 2003

Fungus

Let me start with a personal revelation: I have toenail fungus. It is a very common problem, one that can easily be cured with a pill. The problem?

November 5, 2003

Train

Sometimes you stumble upon a character from history who seems like they must have been made up — then you realize that is because they are probably

November 2, 2003

Spin

There has been a lot of discussion of late about the Lakoff interview on how the left needs to learn how to better “frame” issues, in order to

October 22, 2003

Postal

Does anybody know how the post office decides how many people should work at the window of a particular post office branch? It seems to me that

October 20, 2003

Wal-Mart

has already helped push more than two dozen national supermarket chains into bankruptcy over the past decade. That list includes names like

October 20, 2003

Inequality

I want to thank Nathan Newman for pointing out an article on an issue close to my heart: inequality. Ever since reading Amartya Sen’s book,

October 11, 2003

Economist

If you are feeling suicidal, would you write to a column entitled “Dear Economist”? If the answer is yes, then I strongly suggest some major

October 10, 2003

Machine

A fascinating article from The Industrial Physicist, argues that deregulation of the electrical system ignored thy physics of how the whole thing

October 4, 2003

Liability

Nathan Newman reports some good news: A federal district court in Texas ruled on Wednesday that Ken Lay and other Enron executives are liable to

October 3, 2003

Tabloid

Those of us who worry about media consolidation don’t usually concern ourselves with the Tabloids. After all, nobody takes those seriously, right?

October 1, 2003

Advice

Tapped would encourage you to put money not only into Brown & Root, owners of Halliburton, but also into the new firm founded by former Bush

September 23, 2003

Benefits

Up till now, full time employment in a large or medium sized company was one of the only ways to ensure that you and your family were adequately

September 23, 2003

Portability

Escape Cell Hell — And Take Your Phone Number With You

September 21, 2003

Immigrant

In honor of the Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride, Nathan Newman had a good post on how fighting for Immigrant worker’s rights is good for U.S.

September 20, 2003

Oligarch

Via Nathan Newman: The United States is bringing in Yegor Gaidar to advise them on how to privatize Iraq’s industries. Why is this an appalling

September 19, 2003

Class

Calpundit asks: “is there any kind of rough consensus about what income it takes to reasonably label someone as “rich” or “poor” or “middle class”?

September 17, 2003

Happiness

Jonathon Delacour, writing about Japanese aesthetics, says the following: One of the reasons for my strong interest in Japanese literature and

September 16, 2003

Krugman

It seems that Krugman misses the Reagan years: Actually, I miss Reagan. I never thought I’d say that, but…. This is from Calpudit’s interview

September 12, 2003

Crime

Some interesting facts about crime rates and prisons: …crime rates in America, after rising sharply through the 1960s into the early 1970s, began

September 10, 2003

Priorities

Calpundit calculates that the total budget for Iraq reconstruction will be $221 billion. Here is what he says: Let’s take the hawks at their word

September 9, 2003

Spending

Two items from the blogsphere that seem to sum up the Bush administration’s attitude towards the budget: First, via Tom Tomorrow, Billmon’s concise

September 8, 2003

Productivity

The department of labor reports that worker productivity is up. But what does that mean? I can understand it when we are talking about industrial

September 4, 2003

Cocktail

The New York times reports that “Africans Outdo Americans in Following AIDS Therapy.” This is a serious issue because failure to take medicines

August 27, 2003

Minimum

Nathan Newman has a series of excellent posts on the minimum wage: Illinois Raises Minimum Wage Why Minimum Wage Beats EITC Popularity of Raising

August 25, 2003

Budget

It seems that US troops in Iraq are short on rifles, and are forced to use confiscated AK-47s! Maybe that’s because the US military doesn’t know

August 22, 2003

Centrist

Thanks to Body and Soul for pointing out a great post on Gary Hart’s weblog about Bobby Kennedy. It is so “right-on” that I just have to quote a

August 16, 2003

Opportunity

During my seven hour odyssey returning home to Jackson Heights from midtown Manhattan (nearly an 8 mile journey), I was fortunate enough to run into

August 6, 2003

SPAM

Taken from a Monty Python skit were vikings sing a tribute to the canned meat, the word is no inextricably tied to junk e-mail and even Hormel Foods

July 31, 2003

Gambling

The plan to establish a futures market in terrorism may have been quietly scrapped by the defense department, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still

July 26, 2003

Trade

A recent NY Times Editorial argued that developing nations were being hurt by the unfair trade practices of Europe and America: The same sad story

July 3, 2003

Albums

It seems that some artists are boycotting the Apple Music Store because they won’t sell albums unless the artists also agree to let Apple sell the

June 30, 2003

Debt

To be honest, I’m in way over my head on this word. For one thing, there are so many different kinds of debt that people talk about. Just