Mice

Some years back a neighbor caught a white mouse that had tunneled into a bag of Purina Dog Chow. Perhaps he was an escaped snake lunch. We put him in a 20-gallon terrarium and called him Manny–for Manhattan Mouse, because he was always busy. All day he zipped around, moving his nest and seed stash . . . → Read More: Mice

When Affirmative Action was White, by Ira Katznelson

Economic historians often refer to the period from World War II to the mid 1970’s as the “Great Compression.” During that period, US inequality plunged to its lowest level ever, before reversing. In an earlier Econamici, “The Wedge,” I attributed this plunge to an unprecedented set of redistributive policies: In 1935, Social Security began providing . . . → Read More: When Affirmative Action was White, by Ira Katznelson

The Plague before Thanksgiving

I remember, in the fourth grade, snipping colored feathers from construction paper to make my Indian bonnet. That was for the annual First Thanksgiving pageant. Dressed up as Indians and Pilgrims, we paraded around a table loaded with pies and a paper-maché turkey. We recited how the Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. . . . → Read More: The Plague before Thanksgiving

Benefits of Military Spending

As Kevin Phillips recorded in Wealth and Democracy (2002), war has created the opportunity for many great fortunes. Thus the frenzied looting–and disregard for the lives of both US soldiers and corporate employees–displayed in Robert Greenwald’s new film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. One small example: drivers shuttle empty mail trucks up and down . . . → Read More: Benefits of Military Spending

The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War without End, by Peter Galbraith

From the day the war in Iraq became imaginable, my husband and I have not missed a peace march. Nonetheless, as the slaughter continues, I have worried about how the US can extricate itself. Ambassador Peter Galbraith’s book is reassuring, if that’s the right word, that a prompt withdrawal really can’t make matters worse.

Galbraith . . . → Read More: The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War without End, by Peter Galbraith

Where Did The Wealth of Nations Come From?

Adam Smith (1723-1790) published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, also the year of the American Revolution. Both the Wealth of Nations and the Declaration of Independence sprang from a context, the so-called “Enlightenment.”

The Enlightenment in turn has a history, traced in the lectures of Alan Charles Kors, on “The Birth of the Modern . . . → Read More: Where Did The Wealth of Nations Come From?