I mention the Farm Bill briefly in today’s article, so, I guess this is a good opportunity to bring up this NY Times Magazine article: Compared with a bunch of carrots, a package of Twinkies, to take one iconic processed foodlike substance as an example, is a highly complicated, high-tech piece of manufacture, involving no [...]

Checking out Consumerist (one of my daily — sometimes hourly — reads) just now, I spotted this link on executive pay vs. worker pay. They reference a different chart, but I like this one: Well, “like” may be the wrong word. This is, of course, something I’ve talked about before, but graphics like this sure [...]

But you already knew that right? The latest economic expansion (under Bush) has been pretty lackluster in about every segment of the economy, from GDP growth to the number of jobs created. Via Kevin Drum comes this EPI chart: Kevin has more.

I didn’t have a chance to mention it last week, but a new report was released showing an ever widening gap between the super, super-rich and the rest of us: 2005 shows a very large increase in income concentration: the top 1% gains 14% in real terms from 2004 while the bottom 99% gains less [...]

Among the information contained in the latest Census report on poverty (New Mexico is second-to-last in the nation for the percentage of people without health care!) is the news that the number of “severaly poor” Americans grew at an alarming rate between 2000 and 2005. According to McClatchy (hat tip to TAPPED): The McClatchy analysis [...]

The short answer: probably, but not by much. Sen. Ben Altamirano (D-Silver City) introduced a minimum wage bill again this year (the Senate approved it on Friday), so the naysayers are out in force. We’re always treated with scare stories of businesses laying off workers and other myths: A small point of order, entry-level jobs [...]

Last week, I mentioned a disconnect between the Republican leadership and middle- and lower-class Americans regarding the economy. For example, take a look at two posts by the New Mexico GOP, on its blog NM For Sale. The first, really, says it all: Another Record High for the Dow Not that anyone seems to care [...]

…unless, you know, you’re not in the top 10% of income earners. Republicans have been harping about the Dow, and how the economy is chugging along and everything is great. It speaks of that great disconnect, where our leaders likely have no idea about the price of a gallon of milk. Of course, I’ve blogged [...]

The US Census Bureau released new figures yesterday (hat tip to Think Progress) concerning income in America (also see the Carpetbagger Report). I�ve uploaded a copy of the report (PDF) if you’d care to see the data yourself. Kevin Drum offers the most succinct analysis I’ve seen thus far: The good news is that women [...]

I wrote a lot about income inequality last week, but Ezra Klein manages to hit the nail on the head in a very succinct way this morning over at Tapped. I’m just going to quote the whole thing (though I wish I knew where he found his figures). Among the best of the new Times [...]

From the New York Times (hat tip to the NewMexiKen): The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those who are subject to gift and estate taxes when they transfer parts of [...]

Following up on some recent posts, I saw this story in the San Fransisco Chronicle concerning income inequality (hat tip to ThinkProgress). The gist: even though low-income families make less than their richer counterparts, they pay more for goods and services: By taking out higher-interest mortgages, shopping at rent-to-own furniture stores, using check-cashing businesses instead [...]