During the 20th century, the United States experienced two major trends in income distribution. The first, termed the “Great Compression” by economists Claudia Goldin of Harvard and Robert Margo of Boston University, was egalitarian.* From 1940 to 1973, incomes became more equal. The share taken by the very richest Americans (i.e., the top 1 percent […]
Associated Press17 October 2010 NOWSHERA, Pakistan (AP) — With their villages in shambles, winter on its way and government help slow to arrive, Pakistan’s flood victims are scrambling to rebuild their homes. Many are taking on debt as the price of construction materials has soared following the disaster that damaged or destroyed 1.9 million houses. […]
By Alan Bjerga; editing by Steve Stroth Oct 5, 2010 1:46 PM PT The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to a record 41.8 million in July as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government said. Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 18 percent from a […]
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY8 October 2010 A record 30% — or 4.4 million — of the nation’s 14.7 million unemployed workers were out of work at least a year in August, up from 23% in December, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday by Pew Economic Policy Group. The […]
By Ashley Halsey III, Washington Post Staff WriterMonday, October 4, 2010; 6:20 PM The United States is saddled with a rapidly decaying and woefully underfunded transportation system that will undermine its status in the global economy unless Congress and the public embrace innovative reforms, a bipartisan panel of experts concludes in a report released Monday. […]
29 Sept 2010 Protestors across Europe have taken to the streets to demonstrate against austerity measures imposed by governments as a result of the debt crisis and recession. Governments are planning measures that include public pay freezes, tax raises, increases in retirement age and possible pension cuts. In 13 European capital cities, general strikes and […]
BBC29 September 2010 Tens of thousands of people from around Europe have marched across Brussels in a protest against spending cuts by some EU governments. Spain has held a general strike, with protesters in Barcelona clashing with police and torching a police car. Other protests against austerity measures have been held in Greece, Italy, the […]
The Associated Press Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 9:52 AM A Gallup survey released Tuesday of almost 2,600 Gulf Coast residents showed that depression cases are up more than 25 percent since an oil rig explosion killed 11 people and unleashed a three-month oil spill into the Gulf in April that ruined many livelihoods. The conclusions […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com September 27, 2010 Spreading over three central African nations—Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Republic of Congo—the Sangha tri-national landscape is home to a variety of actors: over 150,000 Bantu people and nearly 20,000 pygmies; endangered species including forest elephants and gorillas; and, not least, the Congo rainforest ecosystem itself, which here […]
In years past, when Desdemona was still in the grip of delusional hope, there was the possibility that the internet might spark a revolution in human consciousness, and that we might overthrow the sociopaths who dominate the various power elites. Desdemona had been scrutinizing the Bush family very closely, after watching, with increasing horror, the […]
