Podcast Episodes

Why Democrats will retain control of the House and Senate next year

Happy Presidents Day. It’s a good day to contemplate whether Joe Biden has a prayer of keeping a Democratic House and Senate next year. Call me a hop…

4 years, 7 months ago

The Investor’s View - Wealth & Poverty Class 2

Hello again, friends. Thank you for joining me for the second week of my Wealth and Poverty class. In today’s class, we begin to explore why such ine…

4 years, 7 months ago

Could you possibly invent a more expensive and less effective healthcare system than what we have in the US?

For many years, my right ankle has been losing cartilage that keeps my ankle bones from scraping up against each other. The result: increasing inflam…

4 years, 7 months ago

Office Hours: What does today's rightward extremism mean for the future of American politics?

I got my start in American politics about 50 years ago. America was in many ways a different country then, but my political views weren’t all that di…

4 years, 7 months ago

Want to be inspired? Watch this

I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been inspired by the young Starbucks baristas who are leading the charge to unionize the company. The number of union…

4 years, 7 months ago

A valentine for you

When I began this newsletter almost five months ago I had no idea what I was doing. I still don’t. But your enthusiastic response, thoughtful comment…

4 years, 7 months ago

Personal History: Why Labor Secretary Marty Walsh should stay the hell away from baseball

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says he’s ready to step up to the plate and help end Major League Baseball’s lockout.

My advice to Marty, as former labor…

4 years, 7 months ago

What's happened to income and wealth in America over the past 40 years? - Wealth and Poverty Class 1

Good morning and welcome to the first day of class!

The questions we’ll focus on today: Is some inequality both inevitable and necessary? At what poin…

4 years, 7 months ago

How do employers shaft workers? Let me count the ways.

More inflation buzz today. The U.S. consumer price index for January rose at an annual rate of 7.5 percent, the largest such increase since 1982.

Yes,…

4 years, 7 months ago

How can we be so publicly miserable and so privately happy?

Many people tell me America is going to hell.

But when I ask them how their own lives are going, they say pretty well.

This discrepancy between how p…

4 years, 7 months ago