"Words that make actions speak louder."
By every measure that matters, relatively equal nations far outperform nations where income and wealth concentrate at the top. A powerful new analysis from the UK explores these contrasts — and explains them. Huge numbers of people in the United States hold prescriptions for anti-depressants. Huge numbers of other Americans “self-medicate” — through illegal drugs […]
A health care reform surtax on the rich makes great budget sense — and even more sense, over the long haul, for our actual health. Politicians and policy makers who adore the rich don’t adore the progressive income tax. They’re always looking for alternatives. Conservative fans of fortune, over recent years, have been gravitating to […]
To be effective, the lead executive pay reformer in Congress is now understanding, executive pay reform needs to go well beyond empowering shareholders. Barney Frank, the colorful Massachusetts Democrat, may be the most caustic quipster in Congress. Ask the nation’s excessively overpaid CEOs. They’ve felt the Frank sting. Why do executives already making millions of […]
Opponents of the proposal for a 5.4 percent health care reform surtax on America’s wealthy seem to be getting a bit desperate. They’ve even turned their fire onto middle-income Americans. Friends and fans of privilege have been striking their indignant pose the last two weeks. They’re shocked, simply shocked, that House Democratic leaders would dare […]
In the struggle for a less unequal America, could the House health care surtax on the wealthy turn out to be a game-changer? The push to overhaul the system that takes care of America’s health may be on the verge of morphing into something even grander, a promising new offensive against the unhealthy concentration of […]
To curb climate change, suggests a new report from a top-notch global scientific team, we really ought to start focusing on rich people, not rich nations. The world’s most influential nations had their experts on climate change in Italy last week. Their goal: to get a head start on figuring out what to do after […]
The Great Recession has shoved state governments over the fiscal edge. But what brought states to that edge in the first place? On July 1 last week, in state capitals across the United States, a new fiscal year began — amid nearly unprecedented fiscal chaos. In California, officials closed summer schools and made plans to […]
The global economic collapse, says the first in-depth survey of grand fortune since last September, has left the world’s wealth just as intensely concentrated as ever. Thirteen years ago, two firms that manage the wealth of the world’s wealthy — New York’s Merrill Lynch and the Paris-based Capgemini — began publishing an annual scorecard that […]
Behind every defective U.S. private enterprise, suggests a surprising new report from inside Corporate America, sits a top executive effective at grabbing for windfalls. Corporate takeover deals that pay off big — for executives — typically follow a standard pattern. One company swallows another. The swallower grabs the swallowed company’s customers, then fires its workers. […]
In a down economy, apologists for the awesomely affluent are having to dig deep for inspiration. In the process, they’re getting dirty and looking dopey. In tough economic times, work for some people can suddenly become significantly more difficult. Take, for instance, the analysts and academics who have decided, for whatever reason, to devote their […]