Category: Economy
Mitt Courts the Junk-Bond King
by WS Editors | Sep 15, 2012 | Economy, PoliticsThe last time Mitt Romney ran for president, MIT business school professor Howard Anderson described Bain Capital—the firm Romney founded—as “the model of how to leverage brain power to make money.” “They are real first-rate engineers,” Anderson told The Boston Globe. “They will do anything they can to increase the value. The promise [to investors] […]
Working on Romney’s Farm
by WS Editors | Sep 1, 2012 | Economy, PoliticsIn our September 1 issue, John Stoehr reports on working-class perceptions of Mitt Romney. But what do Romney and his cohorts think of the people who work for them? Financial writer Josh Kosman devotes a chapter of The Buyout of America to Bain Capital, the company that Mitt Romney founded. The passages below are a snapshot […]
Republics Rising from the Ashes
by John Stoehr | Aug 1, 2012 | Books, EconomyReviewed: Land of Promise: An Economic History of The United States, by Michael Lind (Harper, 592 pp., $29.99). America is fickle. Or at least our economic history is. According to Michael Lind, author of Land of Promise, we can’t make up our minds about the role of the federal government in the economy, and the result […]
Minimum Wage and the Court
by WS Editors | Jul 15, 2012 | Economy, PoliticsThe minimum wage was ushered into existence by a Republican Supreme Court Justice switching sides on a constitutional test before the Court, much as the Affordable Care Act has been. Justice Owen Roberts was a solid vote on Republican Supreme Court that in 1932–34 had dismantled most of FDR’s New Deal legislation. In response, Roosevelt […]
Stealth Stimulus: Why Democrats Are Foolish Not to Try to Raise the Minimum Wage
by WS Editors | Jul 15, 2012 | Economy, Politics“Where are the Democrats on the minimum wage? Where’s Pelosi? Where’s George Miller? Where’s Trumka?” Ralph Nader asked me. It was a rhetorical question, another reminder from Nader that Democrats have gone missing on issues the party once owned. As have the institutions that extend the party’s reach; AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka isn’t exactly leading on […]