May/June 2008 Table of Contents

Remittances to the Rescue?

By Alissa Thuotte

Today, remittance checks are helping millions of households across the global South to keep food on the table and a roof overhead. But the evidence hardly hails them as a long-term solution to global poverty. Read more »
Paying More, Getting Less

By Joel A. Harrison

If more people understood the full size of the health care bill that they as individuals are already paying, the corporate opponents of a universal single-payer system might find it far more difficult to frighten the public about the costs of that system. Read more »
Carlyle Group Targets Immigrants

By Ryan Lynch

The private equity giant is forcing franchisees at the Dunkin' Donuts chain, which it partly owns, to run Social Security number checks on their employees—but what's Carlyle's real motive? Read more »
The Bear Stearns Bailout

By Arthur MacEwan

Dear Dr. Dollar: Who cares if Bear Stearns fails? Or the Carlyle Group? Or Merrill Lynch? Or one of the other big financial companies? They've made their profits. So what's the problem? Read more »

Available only in the print edition:

America Beyond Consumerism

Thad Williamson

Instead of regarding more income as a good in itself, we could alter our political economy so that it provides what Americans really need and want: greater employment security, stronger protection against the pitfalls of poverty, and more free time. We could choose to have the public guarantee employment opportunities for every willing worker, to put a floor on income, to decommodify health care and education, to reduce the gross inequalities of incomes and status which themselves help fuel consumerism, and to take future productivity growth in the form of more time, not more stuff. | Order this issue or subscribe.
The World Is Not Flat

Mark Engler

For better or for worse, Thomas Friedman's punditry provides an indispensable guide to how mainstream commentators have tried to defend neoliberalism in the face of challenges from worldwide social movements. Moreover, Friedman's renewed emphasis on corporate globalization in the wake of the botched war in Iraq may also be a significant bellwether for how the Democratic Party—especially the more conservative "New Democrat" wing of the party—crafts a vision for international relations after Bush. | Order this issue or subscribe.

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