Before we get cynical about 2014, let’s recount the good news from 2013: declining U.S. militarism, a resurgence of diplomacy, and a more forceful global discussion about inequality.
Reasons To Be Cheerful
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Inequality
Ten Good Things about 2013
2013 had its fair share of bad news, but it was also a year of extraordinary activism.
Branding Japan
Shinzo Abe is back as prime minister, along with his special brand of Abenomics and a whole new politics of hype.
The Audacity of Pope
Here are three ways Pope Francis could seriously rock the boat.
Taxpayers Pad Military Contractor CEO Pockets
Would you believe me if I told you that your tax dollars are lining the pockets of some of the highest-paid CEOs? The Institute for Policy Studies recently released a report examining the performance of the corporate chief executives who have ranked among America’s 25...
What Immigration Reform Means for Women
The U.S. immigration system—and efforts to reform it—can impact women differently from men. While much of the U.S. immigration debate has centered on controversies over citizenship and “border security,” less attention has been paid to the enormous impact of immigration policies on women, who make up 51 percent of undocumented immigrants and face unique challenges as they try to make a living in a new country.
Brazilians’ Demands: From Lower Bus Fares to a Fair Society
With a million people demonstrating in the streets of cities throughout Brazil, everyone’s scrambling to understand how a 20-cent bus fare hike turned into a social revolt.
Review: The Rich Don’t Always Win
Sam Pizzigati’s new book, The Rich Don’t Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class 1900-1970, could not come at a better time to rejuvenate the issue of income disparity and what to do about it. Employing a staggering compilation of primary sources, this exceptionally well-researched book reveals the previously unknown story of Americans who fought to overthrow plutocracy in the early 20th century.
China’s Missing Middle Class
Two parallel narratives surround globalization and the trade imbalance between China and the United States. One side moans that competition with China has squeezed traditional U.S. manufacturing jobs and caused the middle class to disappear. The other side declares that a new Chinese middle class is riding the wave of China’s inexorable economic boom. A particularly hyperbolic headline in Forbes, for example, proclaimed the rise of China’s middle class to be “The Biggest Story of Our Time.”
The Next Marx
Lenin graces the cover of a recent issue of The Economist. The Financial Times is running an entire series on the “crisis in capitalism.” Francis Fukuyama, a recovering neoconservative, makes a plea in Foreign Affairs for the left to get its intellectual act together. And that noted class warrior Newt Gingrich has been assailing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for being a ruthless moneybags.
Excuse me? Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing? What parallel universe did we all just stumble into?