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Archive for 'Economy'

Money in Politics: Corporate Contributions to Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum

With the 2012 presidential election in full swing and the Citizen’s United decision having opened the doors to unlimited corporate contributions, corporations are opening their coffers to promote candidates friendly to their interests. Corporate contributions to candidate and to super PACs come from a variety of business interests, including finance, law, energy and unions [...]

The Super PAC and 2012 Election: Why Only Stephen Colbert Can Save Our Democracy

Stephen Colbert has announced his (ironic) bid for the Presidency, stating last week that he would be running for the “President of the United States of South Carolina.” Colbert’s move came after handing over control of his super PAC to friend and fellow comedian Jon Stewart and renaming it The Definitely Not Coordinating With [...]

Five Goals for the Occupy Wall Street Protests

As the Occupy Wall Street protests have grown, so too has the media response grown, from at first ignoring the protests, to exploiting them for their 15 minutes of fame, to recognizing that there are some legitimate grievances being expressed on Wall Street. The only problem is, no one seems to be able to [...]

Social Implications of UBS Trader’s $2 Billion Loss

UBS has had its hands full this week, with the discovery that rogue trader Kweku Adoboli incurred $2.3 billion in trading losses. While the press coverage of this incident has focused on what this means for UBS from a risk management perspective, the social implications of this type of loss are far more interesting. [...]

Corporate Profits Up, Slow Job Growth and American Democracy

Corporate profits reached new highs this past quarter, leading many to inquire why, if American corporations are so profitable, are there no more jobs? Mother Jones recently answered this question by looking at productivity growth in connection with wealth inequality. Their below comparison shows how the rise in worker productivity over the past 30 years [...]

U.S. Job Growth and Prospects for the Economic Recovery

The month of May has released its job figures, and the press is already jumping to dire and skewed conclusions about U.S. job growth, with the AP reporting on “the brutal month of May” under the headline “To keep his job, Obama needs more jobs” and Bloomberg/Businessweek opening its piece on the jobs data [...]

The U.S. Military Budget and the Cost of War

With the budget battle in Washington taking on ever more partisan tones, there is one glaring spot which continues to drain public coffers without accountability: the military. The military budget over the past ten years has spiraled out of control and Washington continues to let it grow unchecked. This, along with generous tax cuts [...]

The Budget Battle, Abortion and Planned Parenthood

“It is my view that no American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition. I believe, therefore that we should establish as a national goal the provision of adequate family planning services within the next five years to all those who want them but cannot afford them. [...]

Why the Wisconsin Budget Needs Collective Bargaining

With state budgets hurting all over the country, Wisconsin has declared open season on organized labor, and Governor Walker has attempted to push through not only cuts to labor benefits, but severe cuts in the rights of labor unions to organize. While the Wisconsin budget problems are no doubt bad, and this is certainly [...]

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