online archive

Economics, immigration, poverty, and health care

From The Economist, an article on the tragedy of the commons: Property rights may be the way to preserve forests. The ethics of land and liberty: How can a person justifiably own something? There are clear moral principles that explain this, although many pundits get confused.

From The New Yorker, since all industries crave foreign markets to expand into but fear foreign competitors encroaching on their home turf, they lobby their governments to tilt the rules in their favor. Usually, this involves manipulating tariffs and quotas. But, of late, a troubling twist in the game has become more common, as countries use free-trade agreements to rewrite the laws of their trading partners. From the Department of Economic Heresy, Alan Blinder on how free trade's great, but offshoring rattles him. Making trade work for everyone: Voters aren’t happy with the reality of free trade—and Democrats are starting to listen.

Quick quiz: Is the dollar weak because Americans think President Bush is a miserable failure? Ignore the black swan: Why are the world's stock markets continuing to rise even though the signs of economic danger are multiplying everywhere? We are regularly taken for suckers by the unexpected. An interview with James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds.

From American Heritage, a look at how illegal immigration was born. From Shovels to Suits: The anti-immigration movement in the United States spans the vigilante border patrols of the Minutemen, the halls of Capitol Hill, the offices of think tanks and foundations, and the Web sites of white supremacist groups. Demagogues are spouting nativist nonsense about immigration, while candidates who know better are avoiding the issue. End of the melting pot? An article on how the new wave of immigrants presents new challenges.

From The American Prospect, don't blame immigrants for poverty wages: The remedy is wage protections, worker rights, and better education and training for both immigrants and native-born workers; false choices on poverty: Why we must address both economics and values; debt, the new safety net: Low-income families are saddled with very high-interest debt. They're not spendthrifts — their earnings are inadequate to fulfill basic needs; and is rising inequality reversible? Politics matters. For a half century, income inequality has fallen under Democrats but risen under Republicans. John Edwards believes a new labor movement is the answer to the country's great divide. Should corporate America be afraid of him? When The Class War Goes Local: In Montana, corporate execs and their GOP allies gather to fight "employee-slanted" policies.

Big business as healthcare reform's unlikely ally: A big-business coalition, breaking ranks with smaller firms, will lobby Sacramento and D.C. to expand coverage to all. Ezra Klein on The Health of Nations: How Europe, Canada, and our own VA do health care better. From Truthdig, Chris Hedges on The Greatest Threat to Choice. And do low-income women have a right to choose? Advocates say the cost of abortion makes it inaccessible to many women — which is why the Dems should be pushing to repeal the ban on public funding for the procedure