Aug 16 Europe’s Stuttering Economy By Paul Solman With the eurozone in such obvious economic turmoil, we turn to former chief IMF economist and longtime friend and favorite of Making Sen$e, Simon Johnson (Peterson Institute, MIT). We asked him a series of pressing questions: Paul Solman: Is… Continue reading
Aug 16 President Obama to Unveil Economic Plan in September By David Chalian President Obama speaks at a town hall meeting Monday at the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images. In front of a picturesque red barn in Iowa on Monday, bathed in the early evening summer light,… Continue reading
Aug 15 In Defense of Flogging: Controversial Conversation on Prisons and Punishment By Paul Solman We were curious: is flogging — beating someone solidly on the behind with a wooden cane — a reasonable, effective alternative to sending that person to jail for two, five, 10 years? That’s exactly what Peter Moskos, a police… Continue reading
Aug 15 Watch In Defense of Flogging: Controversy Over Prisons and Punishment Peter Moskos argues flogging as an alternative to sending people to prison. Continue watching
Aug 13 Big Think: 5 Takeaways From Economists After Market’s Wild Ride It may not be nearly as bad as the financial crisis of 2008, but this was undoubtedly the most frenzied week on the markets since then. And yet while we spent much of our week asking people to… Continue reading
Aug 12 Watch Calmer Markets Cap a Week of Investors ‘Being Smoked out of Safety Zone’ The closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday capped one of the market's wildest spells since the meltdown of 2008. In the end, the major U.S. stock indices only dropped a small percentage for the week. Judy… Continue watching
Aug 12 Watch Many Post Offices Face Uncertain Fates as Cuts Loom Rural Post Offices on Shaky Ground… Continue watching
Aug 12 Rural Post Offices on Shaky Ground More than 3,500 post offices are being evaluated for potential closure. Photo by AFP/Getty. If you blink, you might miss it. That's how the Postmaster in Parshall, Colo., Grant Burger, described his town recently. In fact, photographer Brian Gill… Continue reading
Aug 12 With the Wealthy Burbs Stalled, So Is the Economy The jobless rate in the nation's Monied Burb county types rose to 8.5 percent in June; Creative Commons photo courtesy flickr.com/shoa What's wrong with the U.S. economy? Ugliness abounds. The Dow is way down, then it is way up,… Continue reading
Aug 12 Wealth Quiz: How Does the U.S. Slice the Pie? By Paul Solman Update: Watch Land of the Free, Home of the Poor and Americans Facing More Inequality, More Debt and Now More Trouble? to see the first two parts of Paul Solman’s ongoing series of reports on U.S. economic inequality. Continue reading