July, 2010

More than 15 million Americans are unemployed, homelessness has increased by 50 percent in some cities, and 38 million people are receiving food stamps, more than at any time in the program’s almost 50-year history.

Evidence of rising economic hardship is ample. There’s one commonly used standard for measuring it: the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty rate. It guides much of federal and state spending aimed at helping those unable to make a decent living.  Read more »

We live at a time that might be appropriately called the age of the disappearing intellectual, a disappearance that marks with disgrace a particularly dangerous period in American history.

While there are plenty of talking heads spewing lies, insults and nonsense in the various media, it would be wrong to suggest that these right-wing populist are intellectuals. They are neither knowledgeable nor self-reflective, but largely ideological hacks catering to the worst impulses in American society.  Read more »

Did you watch the soccer match between Argentina and Germany? If your answer is "Yes" you may have watched more than just a soccer game.

You may have witnessed a match between yesterdays way of thinking and tomorrows way of thinking. And not just in terms of soccer but in a much wider perspective.  Read more »

The most powerful nations in the world met recently at the G-20 in Toronto and managed to agree on only one thing of significance: the need to reduce deficits, "half by 2013."

Implied by the statement is the need to lower deficits via "austerity," meaning eliminating or reducing social programs.  Read more »