May/June 2013

The Plutonomy—AI Edition—and the Coming Crisis

Driven by speculative finance, stagnant wages, and AI hype, today’s tech-heavy economy mirrors the fragile plutonomy that collapsed into the Great Crash of 1929.

School Data Profiteering
By Dan Schneider

Data-collecting software from inBloom, a joint venture of the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, is riling privacy and education activists. Read more »
Undercounting the Poor
By Jeannette Wicks-Lim | June 6

The Census Bureau’s alternative Supplemental Poverty Measure is an improvement, but it still underestimates how many of us are poor. Read more »
Greece and the Crisis of Europe: Which Way Out?

By Marjolein Van Der Veen

Examining alternatives to neoliberal austerity—including Keynesian and socialist solutions. Read more »
Chained CPI: Bad for Seniors and for Accuracy

By John Miller

Calculating the COLAs using the chained CPI will reduce Social Security benefits by more and more each year. Read more »
Unemployment Is Down, So What’s the Problem?

By Alejandro Reuss

The official U-3 unemployment rate is down, yet the employment-to-population ratio is flat. What gives? Read more »

Available only in the print edition:

features

Battling Business-as-Usual Unionism

By Brian Walsh

Worker Insurgencies and Labor Revitalization | Order this issue or subscribe.
Palm Oil Oppression

By Sarah Blaskey and Jesse Chapman

Campesinos struggle against large landowners. | Order this issue or subscribe.

the regulars

the short run
two centsLetters on “Beyond Deficit Scare-Mongering”
cartoon Unemployment Measurement
economy in numbers GDP and Its Alternatives
ask dr. dollar Is “Fractional Reserve Banking” to Blame?

Interview: The Global Political Economy of Copper

The Plutonomy—AI Edition—and the Coming Crisis

Metal of the Past, Metal of the Future

May/June 2013

Available only in the print edition:

features

the regulars