May/June 2023

Zapping Labor: The Sharp Rise of Income Inequality Initiated in the Early 1980s

How Federal Reserve policies, the recession they triggered, and broader political and economic changes weakened workers’ power and helped usher in an era of extreme inequality.

The Left Wave That Swept Democratic Primaries

A string of primary victories by DSA-backed candidates and other progressives—from New York to Michigan to Florida—is giving the Democratic left new leverage while putting its ambitious economic agenda back at the center of the party’s debate.

Putting Children to Work

John Miller

Weaker state labor laws enable a heartless solution to the labor shortage. | Read more »
Silicon Valley Fractures

James M. Cypher

California’s tech-centric militarism, real estate speculation, and crypto mania are behind the recent bank failures. | Read more »
cover story

Stop Stock Buybacks!

Ericka Wills

Aviation unions push for restrictions on stock buybacks. | Read more »

Available only in the print edition:

features

“Bomb Trains” and Strikebreaking

Robert Ovetz

How regulation creates perverse incentives to break the law, in the railroad industry and beyond.
Brewing Inequality

Saurav Sarkar

How the Global Tea Industry Works
Finance in the Public Interest

Nicole Levy and Deborah M. Figart

Philadelphia aims to show that public banks are key to ending big-bank dominance.

the regulars

editors’ note Bright Spots and Ongoing Struggles
the short run
two cents
cartoon Media Man Bored with Wage Theft
making sense Imperialism and Natural Resources
up against the wall street journal Putting Children to Work (find the sources for this article here).
in review Coerced by Erin Hatton | Home-based Work and Home-based Workers edited by Malin Nilsson, Indrani Mazumdar, and Silke Neunsinger | Work, Work, Work by Michael D. Yates | A New American Labor Movement by William E. Scheuerman
economy in numbers Signs of Union Vibrancy
dr. dollar Social Security and Inequality

The Political Economy of Palestine