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Articles from The Atlantic Monthly's archive and related links

The Big Picture | The Middle Class | Taxes | Labor

The Big Picture

America's "Suez Moment" (January/February 2004)
The growing trade deficit threatens U.S. living standards and makes the country dangerously vulnerable to economic extortion. The way out is to make foreigners act more like us. By Sherle R. Schwenninger

America's Fortunes (January/February 2004)
In terms of personal prosperity most people are doing better than they think. But prospects for the unemployed are only getting worse. And two big storm clouds loom over everything. By the Editors

Spendthrift Nation (January/February 2003)
It's a precarious situation: U.S. consumer spending is sustaining the economy—but we need to save more to prepare for the surge in retirements. Here's how to boost personal saving without undermining the economic recovery. By Michael Calabrese and Maya MacGuineas

One-Dimensional Growth (January/February 2003)
Since 1998 the United States has lost 11 percent of its manufacturing jobs—and the much vaunted productivity gains of the digital revolution seem to have disappeared. We need an industrial policy that produces real growth. By David Friedman

Taking Stock (January/February 2003)
The demands of our two politically mightiest generations—Boomers and retirees—have knocked the country's public-investment priorities out of whack. By Jonathan Rauch

The Roaring Nineties (October 2002)
As the chairman of Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, and subsequently as the chief economist of the World Bank during the East Asian financial crisis, Joseph Sitglitz was deeply involved in many of the economic-policy debates of the past ten years. What did this experience tell him? That much of what we think we know about the prosperity of the 1990s is wrong. Here is a revised history of the decade, by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. By Joseph Stiglitz

Confidence Itself (September 2002)
Its bizarre evolution from a subjective emotional state to a leading economic indicator. By Walter Kirn

The Other Deficit (April 2002)
America's ballooning trade deficit may be the worst economic problem we face—and no one wants to talk about it. By Eamonn Fingleton.

"Do as We Say, Not as We Do" (February 2002)
Globalization might actually be good for poor countries, if only rich countries played by the rules. By Jack Beatty

"Thanks for Nothing" (October 2001)
A former chief economist at the World Bank offers a case study in how heavy-handed interference can break what doesn't need fixing. By Joseph Stiglitz

"The New Old Economy: Oil, Computers, and the Reinvention of the Earth" (January 2001)
"Knowledge, not petroleum, is becoming the critical resource in the oil business" the author writes in this firsthand account of how technology is stretching the bounds of finitude. By Jonathan Rauch

"Euroland, Open for Business" (November 1999)
Europe's monetary union is at last becoming a reality, and it is hard to see what could pull it apart. By Robert A. Levine

"Beyond the Information Revolution" (October 1999)
The author uses history to gauge the significance of e-commerce—"a totally unexpected development"—and to throw light on the future of "the knowledge worker" his own coinage. By Peter F. Drucker

"Dow 36,000?" (September 1999)
Has the long-running bull market been a contemporary version of tulipmania? In explaining their new theory of stock valuation, the authors argue that in fact stock prices are much too low and are destined to rise dramatically in the coming years. By James K. Glassman and Kevin A. Hassett

"Is Work Bad for You?" (August 1999)
Sociologist, Richard Sennett argues in his book, The Corrosion of Character, that the new "flexible" economy undermines employees' character. Our reviewer, a leading business theorist and management consultant, strongly disagrees. By Michael Hammer

"Building Wealth" (June 1999)
One of the nation's most influential economists asks a few basic questions. How does knowledge create wealth? How can societies incubate entrepreneurs? What skills will the entrepreneurs need? By Lester C. Thurow

"The Market as God" (March 1999)
The Supreme Being of religious worship has sometimes been defined as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Hmmmm. The business pages embrace an uncannily similar theology. By Harvey Cox

"A Good Climate for Investment" (June 1998)
The steps we need to take to protect the environment could create a surge of economic growth. By Ross Gelbspan

"The Social Contradictions of Japanese Capitalism" (June 1998)
Behind the bad economic news from Japan, the writer argues, is a worse social crisis—one he witnesses daily in microcosm in the Japanese village where he lives. By Murray Sayle

"Today's Most Mischievous Misquotation" (March 1998)
Adam Smith's blind faith in the "invisible hand" of the market wasn't really Adam Smith's faith at all—and today Smith is invoked in behalf of causes he did not support. By Jonathan Schlefer

"Toward a Global Open Society" (January 1998)
The outspoken financier outlines more sharply a position for which he has been roundly attacked: that the global capitalist system urgently needs to be protected from itself. By George Soros

"How to Rewrite Economic History" (April 1997)
Has the government really been overstating the rise in the cost of living, as a recent report claims? By Thomas I. Palley

"The Revolution Upon Us" (March 1997)
"All that is solid melts into air"—Karl Marx could have been describing the forces unleashed by the first truly global economy. By Lester C. Thurow

"The Age of Social Transformation" (November 1994)
A survey of the epoch that began early in this century, and an analysis of its latest manifestations: an economic order in which knowledge, not labor or raw material or capital, is the key resource; a social order in which inequality based on knowledge is a major challenge; and a polity in which government cannot be looked to for solving social and economic problems. By Peter F. Drucker

"What Is an Economy For?" (January 1994)
We know the answer: to grow so that we can all buy more and keep the world economy spinning. Asians have a different answer: to grow so that a country can produce more—whoever buys the goods—and keep the country's, not the world's, economy spinning. By James Fallows

"It's (Not) the Economy, Stupid" (July 1993)
Bill Clinton was elected on an untenable premise: that it is the job of the President to manage the economy. Yes, that is what we have come to expect of Presidents; but this expectation, the author argues, is punishingly at variance with anything any President can credibly deliver. By Charles R. Morris

"The Royal Road to Bankruptcy" (January 1933)
"That was the New Era. The old laws of economics were for mortals, but not for us. Looking back now, I see how naive were our godlike airs." By One Who Took the Ride

Related Links

"How the Pie is Sliced"
An explanation of America's growing concentration of wealth. By Edward N. Wolff

"Monetary Policy Uncovered"
Flying Blind: The Federal Reserve's experiment with unobservables. By Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and L. Randall Wray

Multinational Monitor
A comprehensive service devoted to the tracking of corporate activities in the U.S. and around the world.

WebEc
A classification effort to improve the availability of information in Economics on the WWW.

The Middle Class

"Are We Still a Middle-class Nation?" (January/February 2004)
It's no accident that the United States has always been an economic paradise for the middle class—that class was invented and reinvented by the government. Now the government needs to reinvent it again—before it's too late. By Michael Lind

"Against Inequality" (April 1999)
A valiant proposal to give every American twenty-one-year-old the same chance to prosper. By Jack Beatty

"The Voice of Economic Nationalism" (July 1998)
Pat Buchanan attacks globalism as a conspiracy of "elites" callously indifferent to the wages and living standards of working families. By Eyal Press

"A Cartoon Elite" (November 1996)
Is there a class of "pampered meritocrats" who run America? By Nicholas Lemann

"Wages Matter Most" (March 1996)
The political book of the year, E.J. Dionne's They OnlyLook Dead, predicts a Progressive revival—and is too easy on Bill Clinton. By Jack Beatty

"If the GDP Is Up, Why is America Down?" (October 1995)
Why we need new measures of progress, why we do not have them, and how they would change the social and political landscape. By Clifford Cobb, Ted Halstead, and Jonathan Rowe

"Who Speaks for the Middle Class?" (May 1994)
Whatever their rhetoric may be, as a practical matter the Democrats think first of the less fortunate, the Republicans of the well-to-do. Meanwhile, the nation-breaking crisis of the middle class continues. By Jack Beatty

"The Suburban Century Begins" (July 1992)
Nearly half the U.S. population now lives in suburbs. They want a secure and controlled environment. How does this demographic trend impact on national politics? By William Schneider

"The Return of Inequality" (June 1988)
The great bulk of Americans are losing economic and political power, while the affluent are gaining both. This is not a recipe for social comity. By Thomas Byrne Edsall

"America's Changing Economic Landscape" (March 1985)
Is the decline in the industrial belt a step into perilous new territory or is it merely a continuation of the ceaseless transformation that built our prosperity? By James Fallows

"The Declining Middle" (July 1983)
With most jobs being created at the top and the bottom of the ladder, America may have difficulty remaining a middle-class society. By Bob Kuttner

Related Links

The Downsizing of America
A special seven article report from The New York Times on the effects of 43 million jobs lost since 1979.

"Who Deserted the Democrats in 1994?"
"Analysts have pronounced 1994 an ideological election because the economy was growing overall. But look who was swinging Republican." By Ray A. Teixeira and Joel Rogers

"Rising Tides, Sinking Wages"
The economy has grown, productivity is up, profits are soaring. There's just one problem: America's standard of living. By Lawrence Mishel

Taxes

"Three New Ways to Create Jobs" (March 1994)
As joblessness grows and companies eliminate employees in the name of efficiency and productivity, a valuable opportunity is being ignored. In one expert's opinion, tax credits, higher interest rates, and aggressive development of overseas markets can create permanent jobs, stimulate the economy, and make possible the host of quality-of-life programs America desires. By Charles A. Cerami

"The Myth of Oppressive Corporate Taxes" (June 1982)
"Something was wrong with the economy, surely, but were taxes the villain? On paper, the 46 percent corporate tax rate is oppressive. But the paper rate bears little relation to what companies actually pay." By Gregg Easterbrook

"Getting Serious About Tax Reform" (March 1981)
One way to improve America's economic situation is to increase our industrial capacity, which costs money that isn't available because Americans need every nickel to keep up with rising prices. But regular savings can be encouraged, argues one economist, by heavily taxing consumption, by reducing or eliminating state and local taxes ... and more. By Lester C. Thurow

"Can We Limit Taxes to 25 Per Cent?" (August 1952)
What would be the effects of a flat tax of 25 percent? A former Dean of the Harvard University Law School, Erwin Griswold, examines the probable ramifications of a proposed constitutional amendment to limit taxation to 25 percent. By Erwin N. Griswold

"Who Wants Taxes Cut?" (October 1945)
"Economy in government is fine, but too much economy is like too much of a powerful drug. Low taxes are fine, but for lack of revenue I have seen the schools deprived of their best teaching talent, the city deprived of ideal park sites. Gradually I have become convinced that we unwittingly starve good government in embryo; we feed it just enough to keep it alive, and not quite enough to make it vigorous and effective. And I have seen the low-tax lobby operate, usually behind the scenes and always for selfish purposes." By Karl Zeisler

Related Links

The Internal Revenue Service Web site

Project Vote Smart's Issue links: Taxes Web Resource Page

"Unleashing America's Potential"
Report of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, January 1996.

Labor

"Voting for Unemployment" (May 1983)
Why union workers sometimes choose to lose their jobs rather than accept cuts in wages. By Gregg Easterbrook

"Strikes and People" (December 1966)
Recent strikes, such as those that shut down New York's subways and grounded most of the airlines last summer, have caused men on all sides to feel "there must be a better way!" This proposal for a new way grows out of the author's many years of experience in labor-management affairs. He now teaches graduate students of industrial administration at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. By Leland Hazard

"Strikes and the Public Interest" (February 1960)
With the settlement of the steel strike, the pressure will ease, yet we should not put our heads back in the sand. By Archibald Cox

"What Do the Strikes Teach Us?" (May 1946)
More people were on strike late in January than at any other time in the history of the country. By Sumner H. Slichter

"Labor Must Decide" (June 1940)
During the past few years more has happened in our country in labor relationships in industry than during all its previous history. It is high time we took stock, got our bearings, adjusted ourselves to new conditions, looked our labor problem in the face, and saw just what has to come next. By George W. Alger

"The Lawrence Strike: A Study" (May 1912)
The strike began on January 12. Its cause (explained later) was a reduction in pay of about three-and-one-half per cent By legislative reduction of factory working hours. By Lorin F. Deland

"Scabs" (January 1904)
"Such is the tangle of conflicting interests in a tooth-and-nail society that people cannot avoid being scabs, are often made so against their desires, and unconsciously." By Jack London