Business & Economy

Turn a Harsh Light Onto the Banks

Eugene Robinson / Truthdig Feb 24, 2009 It's reaching the point where desperate measures -- brutal honesty and complete transparency -- may be the only way to bring the economy out of its kamikaze dive. If so, this won't be pretty. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

‘Left, Right & Center’: More Banking Shenanigans, Forestalling Foreclosure

Staff / Truthdig Feb 21, 2009 This week's episode of "Left, Right & Center" finds the full lineup of co-hosts -- Matt Miller, Tony Blankley, Arianna Huffington and Robert Scheer -- debating the latest developments in the unholy marriage between big banks and the U.S. government, speculating about what might be done about the American auto industry and doing a little on-the-fly analysis of comparative economic systems. Listen and learn. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Downward Automobility

E.J. Dionne Jr. / Truthdig Feb 19, 2009 It makes sense to prop up ailing carmakers. Allowing GM and Chrysler to go bankrupt could be a triggering event that might make a very bad economy much worse. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

High Ideals in Low Times

Ellen Goodman / Truthdig Feb 19, 2009 If freedom is just another word for no high-flying jobs left for new college graduates to lose, it opens room for risk-taking. And -- dare I say it? -- idealism. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Blame Your Puny Paycheck

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Feb 17, 2009 This didn't start with the mortgage and credit crisis. It all began with the wage crisis. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Recipe for Disaster in the Middle East

Staff / Truthdig Feb 16, 2009 Gas may be cheap again, but the bursting of the petro bubble has sent unemployment soaring to 40 percent among Middle Easterners 15 to 24 years old, stirring unrest. Dubai's airport parking lots are littered with abandoned cars as foreign nationals flee. Egypt, with half a million newly unemployed headed home from abroad, could see a repeat of last year's bloody economic riots. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘Daily Show’: American Grandstand, Banking Episode

Staff / Truthdig Feb 14, 2009 Was it too much to expect a show of contrition or sacrifice when CEOs from eight of the nation's biggest banks turned up on Capitol Hill last week to dodge questions about how they used their respective chunks of bailout change? Probably. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

No Tough Love for Wall Street

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Feb 11, 2009 What an insipid anticlimax! Rising to “a challenge more complex than our financial system has ever faced,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner promised on Tuesday to give trillions more to the very folks who profited from that malignant complexity. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

CEOs Were Bailed Out, Homeowners … Not So Much

Staff / Truthdig Feb 11, 2009 Robert Greenwald's filmmaking team has zeroed in on the ongoing mortgage crisis in this clip illustrating the stark contrast between the fate of Wall Street bankers and that of struggling homeowners after the initial bailout money was doled out -- without any requirements that those who benefited the most account for the funds or be accountable to people trying to save their homes. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘Left, Right & Center’: Are We Stimulated Enough Yet?

Staff / Truthdig Feb 8, 2009 Everyone's a Captol Hill critic these days. Here we have a handful who might just know what they're talking about when it comes to the stimulus debate: Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley, Robert Scheer and Matt Miller do their darndest to sort out where the money should go. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Stimulus Skeptics Wrong (Again)

Joe Conason / Truthdig Feb 5, 2009 Mythology is overshadowing history in the debate over Obama's plan to stimulate the depressed economy. Excessive airtime is devoted to the prejudices of cable hosts and radio personalities who regurgitate ideas they barely understand. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Dear Wall Street

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Feb 5, 2009 The reason you are such a big story is that you've stolen our money. Or at least that's how most of the country sees it. You think those auto executives looked bad when they flew into Washington on their private jets? Just you wait. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )