Business & Economy

Curb Your Enthusiasm for Obama

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Sep 1, 2008 Barack Obama's health care plan coddles the corporations that profit from the misery and illnesses of tens of millions of Americans. The plan is naive, at best, and probably disingenuous when it insists that we can coax these corporations, which are listed on the stock exchange and exist to maximize profit, to transform themselves into social service agencies that will provide adequate health care for all Americans. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Turning Gold Into Green

Staff / Truthdig Aug 19, 2008 Michael Phelps' million-dollar bonus for making Olympic history is chump change compared with the hundreds of millions he is expected to rake in over the course of his career. What does swimming have to do with credit cards? Visa is prepared to spend millions to convince you the answer is "a lot." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

A Common-Sense Approach to Social Security

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Aug 5, 2008 In this summer of our economic discontent, it isn't necessary to manufacture a financial crisis or to make political hash out of discussing a nonexistent one. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The ‘Have-Oils’ and the Have-Nots

Staff / Truthdig Aug 3, 2008 Skyrocketing oil and natural gas prices in the second quarter of this year led ExxonMobil to report the highest profit ever by an American company. Despite falling production and rising operating costs, Exxon brought in $138 billion in revenue and reported an astounding net income of $11.7 billion. Who else is profiting? Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Sucking Up to the Bankers: A Bipartisan Lovefest

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Jul 30, 2008 This is a time to condemn the bankers, not to embrace them. They are the scoundrels who got us into the biggest economic mess since the Great Depression, lining their own pockets while destroying the life savings of those who trusted them. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Military-Industrial Complex: It’s Much Later Than You Think

Chalmers Johnson / Truthdig Jul 28, 2008 Since 1961, there has been too little serious study of, or discussion of, the origins of the military-industrial complex, how it has changed over time, how governmental secrecy has hidden it from oversight by members of Congress or attentive citizens, and how it degrades our constitutional structure of checks and balances. Dig deeper ( 15 Min. Read )

MTV Launches Political Spots With Anti-Obama Ad

Staff / Truthdig Jul 26, 2008 MTV has become quite the changeling, now resembling not in the least the network that debuted in the early 1980s. Recently, the cable mainstay announced it will start airing political advertisements, and Team McCain seems to be first out the gates with this "Both Ways Barack" attack ad. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Starbucks Economy

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Jul 24, 2008 In its own way, Starbucks has a lot in common with SUVs, hot tubs and television screens wide enough to fill a wall. That is, it represents the bit-by-bit extravagances that helped get us into the tight economic jam we find ourselves in today. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

There’s More to the Economy Than Taxes

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Jul 22, 2008 Using taxes as the centerpiece of -- or as a substitute for -- a more comprehensive economic policy is the idea that has dominated Washington since the rise of Reaganism nearly three decades ago, but the global forces shaping the U.S. economy are more powerful than a mere tax cut, or tax hike. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Do-It-Yourself Economy

Ellen Goodman / Truthdig Jul 17, 2008 We are expected to interact with "labor-saving technology" without realizing that it's labor-transferring technology. The job has not been "saved"; it's been taken out of the paid sector, where employees have a nasty habit of expecting salaries, and put into the unpaid sector, where suckers 'r' us. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Real Legacy of the ‘Reagan Revolution’

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Jul 16, 2008 McCain campaign co-chair Phil Gramm is right: We have "become a nation of whiners." But who is whining more than the bankers that former Sen. Gramm's financial deregulation legislation benefited? The very bankers who now expect a government bailout, such as those at UBS Investment Bank, where Gramm found lucrative employment. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Death of Reaganomics

E.J. Dionne Jr. / Truthdig Jul 11, 2008 The biggest political story of 2008 is getting little coverage. It involves the collapse of assumptions that have dominated our economic debate for three decades. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )