Archive for November, 2006
Arizona seizes migrants' remittances
A follow-up to our coverage (1,2) of Arizona’s attempt to finance its border wall with a tax on money wired abroad: In These Times reports that the state is now simply seizing the money, on the suspicion that everyone who wires money to another country is a drug trafficker. Technorati Tags: immigration, remittance tax, border ...Read more.
Florida was built on free enterprise
In another Rethinking Schools article that is not online, University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen tells us, “One way to measure the fears of people in power is by the intensity of their quest for certainty and control ovr knowledge. …The members of the Florida Legislature marked themselves as … terrified of history.. when ...Read more.
The psychology (and economics and marketing) of overeating
While we recover from holiday #1, Salon.com’s Katharine Mieszkowski interviews Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, about the psychology of overeating, and they come up with some economic and marketing insights. Since the observations that you’ll eat more from a larger plate (or a larger bag of chips) ...Read more.
Teaching globalization in high schools
At Dollars & Sense, we’re often asked if any of the readers in our book catalog are particularly geared toward high school students. The answer, sadly, is no. But for all of you who have asked, the current issue of Rethinking Schools offers high school teachers a good globalization course outline by Berkeley High School’s ...Read more.
Houston janitors' strike ends in contract
On November 20, The Washington Post reports After a month-long strike featuring local, national, and international demonstrations, Houston janitors reached an agreement with five major cleaning contractors that will double their income and provide them with health insurance by 2009. The 5,300 mostly female, mostly Latino janitors represented by the Service Employees International Union will ...Read more.
A little economics can be a dangerous thing
First in a series: The Dollars & Sense Blog Recovers from the Holiday On November 16, arch free-marketeer and Nobel laureate in economics Milton Friedman died. Almost as if in memoriam, In These Times featured Christopher Hayes’s reaction to his foray into an introductory economics course at Friedman’s own University of Chicago: As taught by ...Read more.
Econamici: The Plague Before Thanksgiving
I remember, in the fourth grade, snipping colored feathers from construction paper to make my Indian bonnet. That was for the annual First Thanksgiving pageant. Dressed up as Indians and Pilgrims, we paraded around a table loaded with pies and a paper-maché turkey. We recited how the Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. ...Read more.
Econamici: Benefits of Military Spending
November 12, 2006 As Kevin Phillips recorded in Wealth and Democracy (2002), war has created the opportunity for many great fortunes. Thus the frenzied looting–and disregard for the lives of both US soldiers and corporate employees–displayed in Robert Greenwald’s new film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. One small example: drivers shuttle empty mail trucks ...Read more.
Econ-Atrocity: Will it matter if the Democrats win?
Will it matter if the Democrats win?By Gerald Friedman, CPE Staff EconomistNovember 3, 2006 An Econ-Atrocity, brought to you by the Center for Popular Economics. As I write this, it appears likely that after 12 years in the wilderness, the Democrats will capture a majority in the House of Representatives and will make substantial gains ...Read more.
