Business & Economy

Breathing New Life Into Health Care

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Dec 4, 2008 Over the past 10 months, as the hemorrhage of jobs began to push the national unemployment rate toward its October level of 6.5 percent, about 3 million Americans were thrown off the insurance rolls or had their incomes fall so much that they became eligible for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Class Bigotry Mars Auto Debate

E.J. Dionne Jr. / Truthdig Dec 2, 2008 The auto industry bailout would have no chance of passing without the muscle of the Big Three's unionized work force. Yet you can't turn around without hearing someone trash autoworkers for the terrible crime of trying to earn a decent living. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Merry Wal-Mart, America: Part II

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Dec 2, 2008 Two weeks ago I wrote that this was going to be a Wal-Mart Christmas. I could not have anticipated the most macabre manifestation of the syndrome: the death of a Wal-Mart worker who was trampled by a mob of early shoppers Friday on Long Island. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Starving for Change

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Nov 24, 2008 The swelling numbers waiting outside homeless shelters and food pantries around the country have grown by at least 30 percent since the summer. If Barack Obama continues to turn to the elites who created the mess, if he does not radically redirect the nation’s resources to assist the working class and the poor, we will become a third-world country. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Sooner or Later, They’ll Bail Out Detroit

Eugene Robinson / Truthdig Nov 21, 2008 The Big Three left Capitol Hill empty-handed, but they're bound to get some kind of federal help, however grudging. In the end, I don't think either George W. Bush or Barack Obama wants to be remembered as the president who lost the auto industry. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Steering Clear of Disaster in Detroit

Bill Boyarsky / Truthdig Nov 21, 2008 If jobs weren’t disappearing and a depression threatening, it would be easy and satisfying to send the American auto industry into bankruptcy or liquidation. But this isn’t the time to make Chrysler, General Motors and Ford pay for their years of failure and shortsightedness. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Bailout or Bust: How to Save the Big Three From Themselves

Titus Levi / Truthdig Nov 20, 2008 There's no guarantee that a bailout would save the incompetently managed American automobile industry. However, doing nothing may be worse, especially for the state of Michigan. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Change We Can Bank On

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Nov 19, 2008 This is not change we can believe in. Not if Robert Rubin or his protégé, Lawrence Summers, get to call the shots on the economy in President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming administration. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

A Wal-Mart Christmas for a Wal-Mart Country

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Nov 18, 2008 The giant discounter is the only store where hard-squeezed consumers can afford to buy anything, and so it has kept posting sales gains amid the retail bloodbath. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

‘Left, Right & Center’: The Economy, Front and Center

Staff / Truthdig Nov 15, 2008 What's to be done to pull the U.S. out of economic quicksand? You can bet that "Left, Right & Center" stalwarts Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller might differ in their takes on this question, as well as others posed on this week's show. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Some Blame Must Follow the Financial Collapse

William Pfaff / Truthdig Nov 12, 2008 "What am I going to tell the public," one French official asked, "when there are 3 million people marching in the streets of Paris? That 'we all made mistakes'? That no one was really responsible?" Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

The Battle for Obama’s Economic Soul

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Oct 22, 2008 Instead of running with the "European socialist" crowd, as John McCain has claimed, Barack Obama has turned to the same American “free market” elite that views government as merely a corporate subsidiary. Even within that group, however, there are serious splits, and the more enlightened side seems to be winning. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )