Media

On Monday, Ezra Klein argued that “conventional wisdom on Washington is that corporations win every fight and everyone else — particularly the poor — get shafted" is, wait for it, "wrong, or at least incomplete."

Progressives hoping to better understand why conservatives so dislike government can enlighten themselves by fixing their attention on America's war on drugs -- and the formidable challenge of actually stopping that runaway train.  

Why does a second-string NFL player caught using the “N” word on video receive 24-hour coverage by every major news network in the country for days, but the largest racial wealth gap since the government began keeping records almost 30 years ago barely causes a blip in the press?

So you aced the job interview. But can you pass the credit check?

That’s right, a growing number of employers are checking job applicants’ credit reports, even when the job doesn’t involve financial responsibilities and management.

About six in 10 employers conduct credit checks on at least some of their job applicants before deciding whether to extend an offer; 13 percent conduct them on all candidates.

Does America believe in second chances? In some cases, yes. Corporations get second chances all the time. For instance, nearly every major pharmaceutical company has been repeatedly fined by the Justice Department for either fraud or illegal marketing, and yet—because no individual executices are ever held accountable—most go on to break the law again. Ditto for many top financial firms.

When politics is dominated by the wealthy, the interests of the wealthy are advanced while the interests of lower income and working families are ignored.

The London Whale has surfaced again. The lingering question is whether the investigations will prove that whales, like fish, rot from the head.