The important thing to understand is that the case for pollution control isn't based on some kind of aesthetic distaste for industrial society. Pollution does real, measurable damage, especially to human health.

The great thing about fiscal policy is that it has a direct impact and doesn't require you to bind the hands of future policymakers.

In short, what the living wage is really about is not living standards, or even economics, but morality. Its advocates are basically opposed to the idea that wages are a market price-determined by supply and demand, the same as the price of apples or coal. And it is for that reason, rather than the practical details, that the broader political movement of which the demand for a living wage is the leading edge is ultimately doomed to failure: For the amorality of the market economy is part of its essence, and cannot be legislated away.

The United States in particular and the West in general should be feeling a little embarrassed about all that lecturing we did to the Third World.

Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power.

I admit it: I had fun watching right-wingers go wild as health reform finally became law.

When the Fed decides that inflation is too high, they have the tools, and they've shown historically that they have the will, to bring it down. And, it might be painful.