The maneuvering in markets for oil, wheat, cotton, coffee and more have brought billions in profits to investment banks like Goldman, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, while forcing consumers to pay more every time they fill up a gas tank, flick on a light switch, open a beer or buy a cellphone.
Source: A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold – NYTimes.com
In a financial planning guide for its workers, the company accidentally illustrates precisely how impossible it is to scrape by on a fast food paycheck.
Of course, minimum wage workers aren’t really entirely on their own, especially if they have children. There are programs like food stamps, Medicaid, and the earned income tax credit to help them along. But that’s sort of the point. When large companies make profits by paying their workers unlivable wages, we end up subsidizing their bottom lines.
Source: McDonald’s Can’t Figure Out How Its Workers Survive on Minimum Wage – The Atlantic
Today, wealth equality is closely tied to income equality. But in the long run, it’s all about thrift, frugality, and saving — in other words, teaching a consumer nation a lesson in cheapness.
Source: How to Fix America’s Wealth Inequality: Teach Americans to Be Cheap – The Atlantic
There was a time when you could be brimming with ideas and have no place to say them.
People who talk about “gate-keepers” have mostly had the good fortune of living inside the castle walls.
Source: ‘Lucrative Work-for-Free Opportunity’ – The Atlantic
America’s still-awful job market, in two charts.
Source: The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever Isn’t Scary Enough : Planet Money : NPR