Driving in Reverse

Inflation Jargon Explained

Defining the terms you keep pretending to understand.

The Disinformation Scam

We shouldn’t embrace the war on disinformation just because the Right hates it.

“Whip Inflation  Now”

As economic crisis grew in the 1970s, the government launched a sprawling campaign to enlist everyday Americans in a fight against inflation. But the last four decades have soured the public on such calls for self-sacrifice — and for good reason.

The Reindustrial Revolution

California representative and Bernie 2020 campaign chair Ro Khanna on building a new economy and winning back workers.

The Great Replacement Theory Isn’t Going Anywhere

After the mass shooting in Buffalo, don’t expect conservative leaders to stop promoting the “great replacement theory” that inspired the gunman.

The Faces of Inflation

Inflation isn’t just an economic abstraction. It’s a slow, deadly squeeze on working people.

The Hidden Costs of Being An American Worker

When it comes to buying stuff online, American workers have it made. But when it comes to “mass services” — transportation, housing, education, health insurance, and childcare — American workers are getting fleeced.

The Left Is Still Losing the Working Class

It’s good that college-educated workers are unionizing. But it doesn’t tell us much about the working class as a whole.

Food Fights

From the earliest days of American history through the first decades of the 20th century, Americans rose up repeatedly to beat back rising food costs. They did so out of the belief that all members of the community had the right to a just price for bread.

When Italy’s Escalator Ground to a Halt

Postwar Italy’s “escalator” system kept wages ahead of price hikes. In the 1980s, a socialist government brought it grinding to a halt — sending workers’ incomes on a decades-long downward trend.

Europe’s Breadbasket

As war rages in Ukraine, farmers have abandoned their work mid-season to take up arms against Russia. Those who stayed behind are in a race to harvest their crops before stray rockets torch their fields.

The American Right’s Joan Baez

Not every 1960s folk singer was a comrade.

Too Many Commas

Children of the Weimar Republic play with devalued banknotes, 1919. Others found use for the worthless marks as wallpaper, craft and kite material, and kindling.

Issue 46: Misery Index

Crunching the numbers on the class war.

Has Sinn Féin’s Day Come?

Sinn Féin is now the leading party across Ireland. But its real test will happen in power.

Spring Turned to Winter

The widespread popular upheaval known as the “Arab Spring” ended one decade ago this year. Tunisia, whose Jasmine Revolution inspired many other demonstrations in 2011, is the only country to participate that still has an intact democracy. But even Tunisia now slouches back toward authoritarianism.

Red the Fed

The Federal Reserve’s response to inflation is bad for workers — but it doesn’t need to be.

The Hard Times Behind Philly Soul

Beneath the strings and sequins, the Sound of Philadelphia was the backing track to the economic crisis that hit black America in the 1970s.

Tracking the Wave of Starbucks Worker Organizing

Venti cappuccino in one hand and a ballot in the other, the Starbucks organizing drive is on a roll.