November/December 2013

Zapping Labor: The Sharp Rise of Income Inequality Initiated in the Early 1980s

How Federal Reserve policies, the recession they triggered, and broader political and economic changes weakened workers’ power and helped usher in an era of extreme inequality.

The Left Wave That Swept Democratic Primaries

A string of primary victories by DSA-backed candidates and other progressives—from New York to Michigan to Florida—is giving the Democratic left new leverage while putting its ambitious economic agenda back at the center of the party’s debate.

Financing the New Economy

By Abby Scher

By enriching the alternative financial sector, we can nurture the power of workers over capital, an age-old struggle that the financial crisis makes only more urgent. Read more »
Vice Versa: Inequality and Our Economic Problems

By John Miller

Rising inequality is not just bad for us, but is the root cause of today’s economic problems. Read more »
Crooks, Liars, Idiots, and Plutocrats

By Matías Vernengo

Tea Party “idiots” in Congress are the public face of the debt-ceiling crisis, but plutocrats are the real backers and austerity is the real aim. | Read more »
Picket, Fight, and Win

By Seth Grande

Solidarity networks—volunteer mutual support groups that organize around specific cases—defend tenants and workers with direct action. | Read more »

Available only in the print edition:

features

How to Fight the Credit-Card Sharks—and Win!

By Jim Campen

New consumer protection legislation has reined in predatory credit-card lending. | Order this issue or subscribe.

the regulars

the short run
cartoon Debt! Debt!! Debt!!!
comment Typhoon Haiyun and a Global Coastal Strategy
in review Gar Alperovitz,
What Then Must We Do?
economy in numbers Gender Wage Gap, Part 2
ask dr. dollar What role did securitization play in the housing bubble and collapse?

The Political Economy of Palestine