Ask David M. Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States and head of GAO. Here's what he said in a Dec 17, 2007 speech at the National Press Club: "If the federal government was a private corporation and the same report came out this morning, our stock would be…
The title to this post is a teaser, of course. After a certain point, having more stuff does not make people happier. In his new book, Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and a Durable Future (2007), Bill McKibben asks why having more stuff usually doesn't make us happier. He…
How bad is the economy? In the May issue of Harpers Magazine, Kevin Phillips cuts through the numbers in an article entitled "Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know." The revelations Phillips makes are shocking. The U.S. government has been consciously cooking the books for decades. How…
Bill Moyers recently interviewed Benjamin Barber, a renowned political theorist and a distinguished senior fellow at Demos — a public policy think tank here in New York City. Barber's most recent book is Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (2007). What's the focus of this book?…
Advertisement (almost a full page ad) for a huge new casino opening soon in St. Louis, published in the November 30, 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I didn't know that happiness was so easily achieved. And from this ad, it appears that everyone comes out ahead at the casino.