Interview by Douglas Clement (Federal Reserve Bank, Minn.) David Card seems like a pretty mild-mannered guy. True, he speaks with conviction, but it is confidence backed by meticulous research and tempered with open acknowledgment of the limits of that research. Card, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, is the antithesis of a zealot. [...]
Chivalry is 'benevolent sexism' and bad, lady psychologists find
By David Molloy (Irish Times) Traditional chivalry is a subtle form of sexism despite its “seemingly positive” qualities, according to the authors of a new psychological study. The study, published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly journal, uses examples of “benevolent sexism” that include using “he” to refer to a person of unknown gender, helping [...]
Loss of immigrant labor imperils US food supply
By Daniel B. Wood (Christian Science Monitor) California and Arizona farmers — producers of half the nation’s citrus and 90 percent of its vegetables and nuts — are struggling with an acute labor shortage. The situation, worsened by crackdowns on illegal immigration since 9/11, also extends to other states and is no longer just a [...]
More solid proof that Obamacare is working
By Rick Ungar (Forbes) Recent data provided by the nation’s largest health insurance companies reveals that a provision of the Affordable Care Act – or Obamacare – is bringing big numbers of the uninsured into the health care insurance system.And they are precisely the uninsured that we want– the young people who tend not to [...]
Texas governor who talked about seceding now wants a bailout
by Jed Lewison (Daily Kos) Two years ago, Rick Perry was talking about Texas Independence. Now he wants a bailout. Mr. Secession himself wants more Federal aid, and he’s got no sense of shame in demanding it: Texas Governor Rick Perry criticized the Obama administration on Thursday for not responding to a request for [...]
Mexicans are world's hardest workers, report shows
(OECD) Mexicans work longer days than anyone else in OECD countries, devoting 10 hours to paid and unpaid work, such as cleaning or cooking at home. Belgians work the least, at 7 hours, compared with an OECD average of 8 hours a day. These are among the insights in the latest edition of Society at [...]
Ronald Reagan raised corporate taxes to force tax dodgers to ‘pay their fair share
By Zaid Jilani (ThinkProgress) In the middle of his presidency, then-president Ronald Reagan learned that a number of big corporations, including his former employer, General Electric, were completely escaping paying federal corporate income taxes. “I didn’t realize things had gotten that far out of line,” Reagan told his Treasury secretary, Donald T. Regan, according to [...]
In 12 Years, income for richest 400 Americans quadruples, tax rate nearly halved
By Judd Legum (ThinkProgress) New data released by the IRS reveals that, over a period of 12 years, tax rates for the richest 400 Americans were effectively cut in half. In 1995, the richest 400 Americans paid, on average, 29.93% of their income in federal taxes. In 2007, the last year for which the IRS [...]
Go USA! Number One in poverty and 26 other shameful scores
By James Gustave Speth (Yes!) From President Obama to Sarah Palin, our politicians are constantly invoking America’s superiority and exceptionalism or exhorting us to be Number 1. Yet from health care to education to environmental performance, we’re more often found at the bottom of the list of developed countries. It’s a good idea to set [...]
Unpaid internships gain popularity among the jobless — is slavery next?
By Alana Semuels (Los Angeles Times) Malibu resident Ashley St. Johns-Jacobs, 40, typically rises before 5 a.m. to get to her job at the Los Angeles city attorney’s office by 8 a.m. After a full day prosecuting misdemeanors, she often brings work home. What she doesn’t bring home is a paycheck. With no position open, [...]
