When the president of the United States delivers his State of the Union message next week, he'll be speaking to the wealthiest Congress in history. What does it mean for a representative democracy when most of its representatives are insulated from the real-world economic experiences of its citizens?

A new report...

Have you heard? Goldman Sachs is "a shell of its former self."

Fortunately for its executives, this "shell" earned $8.91 billion in 2013, just a few short years after its leaders mismanaged it into the ground as its bankers committed serial fraud.

There's no reason to believe that the column that described...

When you look too long into the Abyss, said Nietzsche, the Abyss looks into you. "And," adds comedian Brother Theodore, "neither one of us likes what we see."

That's what the economic pronouncements of Republican politicians are like nowadays. Instead of a governing philosophy, all one sees is a yawning...

Democrats have been pleading with President Obama not to cut Social Security for years. Until now, most of the public pleas have come from Democratic voters. Now they're coming from Democratic senators.

You can't blame them. In 2010 polls showed that Democrats blew a 28-point lead in voter confidence on...

Despite record-high levels of unemployment -- especially long-term unemployment -- Republicans are refusing to permit any extension of unemployment insurance benefits unless it's "paid for" with money taken from other government programs. They've never demanded that of Republican administrations.

The Republican argument against extending these benefits is disingenuous, mean-spirited, and...

Some Republicans are claiming Chris Christie isn't really one of them. Some pundits are claiming, even as scandal erupts around him, that he's a "different kind of Republican." He's more than that: He is the archetypal Republican, the incarnation of its arrogant, corporatist soul.

It's like we said a...

"Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity," said Nelson Mandela, "it is an act of justice." When the War on Poverty began a half-century ago, it was widely seen as the moral obligation of a wealthy nation.

President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in his first State of...

It's beginning to look as if JPMorgan Chase has had a hand in every major banking scandal of the last decade. In fact, it's the Zelig of Wall Street crime. Take a snapshot of any major bank fraud and chances are you'll see JPMorgan Chase staring out at you...

This recent piece by Ayobami Olugbemiga has much to recommend it, but the most striking thing about it may be this:  Mr. Olugbemiga manages to discuss the retirement crisis faced by Millennials for seven paragraphs without once blaming older generations for their woes. The author's photograph suggests he's too...

What's the economic issue we should focus on - jobs, or inequality? An increasing number of people, including the President and New York's new mayor, have suggested that inequality of wealth and opportunity is the defining issue of our time.

But some of the folks at the Washington Post's "WonkBlog"...

What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, a president and a party who had just won an election with progressive rhetoric were quickly pivoting toward a "Grand Bargain" which would cut Social Security and Medicare. Leaders in both parties were obsessed with deficits, and there was...

One year ago a good argument could have been made for cynicism and despair, at least when it came to financial reform. More than four years after an epidemic of Wall Street fraud took down the economy, there had been no indictments of financial executives. Bank CEOs were still treated...

This week Sen. Elizabeth Warren and six colleagues introduced the Equal Employment for All Act, which would make it illegal for employers to disqualify job applicants based on their credit scores. It's an admirable and important bill which deserves our support. It also gives us an opportunity to have...

It's becoming increasingly clear that, at least politically, 2014 will be "The Year of Economic Populism." Now the question is, who gets to decide what that really means?

A couple of recent policy disagreements offered us glimpses of the debates that could shape tomorrow's new populist initiatives. These are the debates...

"When you are old and grey and full of sleep," the William Butler Yeats poem begins, "And nodding by the fire ..."

Our culture has always been emotional -- sentimental, even -- about old age. So when did older people become The Enemy? Last week a judge ruled that Detroit...

There will be time to review the budget deal which was just struck by congressional negotiators in more detail. To that end, the open windows on my computer show the latest labor statistics and economic trends. But the phrase that keeps coming to mind, especially when it comes to...

There was a big dust-up in the Democratic Party last week, triggered by a somewhat incoherent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal from the leaders of a Wall Street-funded "think tank"/lobbying group called Third Way. Many of the responses dealt with the op-ed's attack on Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but don't...

After democracy came, they tore down the prison where freedom fighters were held and used the bricks to build the nation's first Constitutional Court.

Visitors to South Africa are often struck by the depth and breadth of that country's affection for Nelson Mandela. I still have the newspaper I bought...

This Thursday, December 5, workers at fast-food restaurants around the country will be striking for higher pay and better working conditions. Their primary demand is an increase in their base hourly wages to $15 an hour.

Here are 12 things you should know about Thursday's action.

1. If...

Something is happening. It's beginning to look as if the fight for a livable minimum wage might -- just might -- alter our political future.

Makes sense, when you think about it. The minimum wage struggle is occurring at the intersection of powerful forces. It's taking place at a time...