In These Times

21.02.2005 It's not so simple, but it's clear that much government policy is written these days with corporate interests in mind. Corporates may pay the politicians' bills, but corporate power can be challenged if everyday people engage as citizens, not just as consumers or investors, say analysts Lee Drutman and Charlie Cray.

16.02.2005 On the eve of President Bush's inauguration, the companies responsible for exit polling data during the 2004 U.S. presidential election released a report detailing why their results predicted a 5 million vote Kerry victory, despite the candidate's 3 million vote defeat. While the company--and the news media--announced that the exit poll data must have been wrong, the report demonstrates that it couldn't have been, write a pair of U.S. professors who teach statistics and research methodology.

26.01.2005 Wal-Mart has been assailed for driving smaller operations out of business wherever it goes, and now the retail behemoth is being challenged itself--forced to scrap expansion plans in several U.S. cities as residents protest its employment policies that they say keep poor workers poor. While the company's profits top $9 billion a year, only half its employees have health insurance, and those that do often pay as much as $200 per month out of their own pockets.

30.12.2004 “I wanted to work at a decent job and earn a decent wage, with decent benefits, so I can raise my kids, give them a decent education,” said 31-year-old Aaron Kemp who used to work at Maytag corporation’s factory in Galesburg, Illinois. The corporation closed the plant in September, sending most of the 1,600 jobs performed there to Mexico in a move the workers blame more on corporate greed than declining revenue.

15.12.2004 Argentina's decline since the economic collapse of 2001 has been staggering--much of Buenos Aires' middle class now survive as street vendors or by begging. The country is beginning to turn around, however, experiencing modest growth and even small budget surpluses, but how long can it hold out as the IMF demands it put foreign creditors above its own poor?