The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy

by Heintz, James

• ISBN13: 9781565845787
• ISBN10: 1565845781
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: New Pr

Summary

Updated for the millennium, the latest version of "the best and . . . least solemn guide to the dismal science you are likely soon to encounter" (John Kenneth Galbraith). Revised and expanded with the most recent data, The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy is an all-new edition of the classic primer on American economics that Noam Chomsky has called "an invaluable resource" and Juliet Schor has called "essential." As in the past, this highly illustrated guide brings key policy issues to life, reflecting the collective wit and wisdom of the best economic literacy activists in the country. Ten chapters tell you what you need to know about owners, workers, women, people of color, welfare and education, government spending, health, environment, macroeconomics, and the global economy. A glossary and conceptual tool kit help make sense of the facts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	9	(10)
The Bottom Line	10	(2)
Owners	12	(18)
Who Owns How Much?	14	(1)
Very Rich, Getting Richer	15	(1)
What the Wealthy Own	16	(1)
The Color of Wealth	17	(1)
The Richest People in the World	18	(1)
Gross Inequalities	19	(1)
Born on Third Base	20	(1)
CEO Pay	21	(1)
Scraping By	22	(1)
Who Gets Money from What?	23	(1)
The Price of Influence	24	(1)
Dollar Democracy	25	(1)
Controlling Media	26	(1)
Mega-Mergers	27	(1)
Multinational Goliaths	28	(1)
Worker Owners	29	(1)
Workers	30	(18)
Who's in the Labor Force?	32	(1)
Bye-bye Factory Jobs	33	(1)
The Wage Treadmill	34	(1)
Skimpy Paychecks	35	(1)
Tough Luck, Kids	36	(1)
The Minimal Minimum Wage	37	(1)
Shrinking Benefits	38	(1)
Unequal Pay	39	(1)
The Working Poor	40	(1)
Living Wage Campaigns	41	(1)
Underemployment	42	(1)
Jobless in 1998	43	(1)
The Ups and Downs of Unemployment	44	(1)
Downsizing	45	(1)
Who Belongs to Unions?	46	(1)
The Comeback Kid	47	(1)
Women	48	(18)
Most Women Earn a Wage	50	(1)
Married-Couple Families Are Less Common	51	(1)
Women Still Earn Less Than Men	52	(1)
Equal Work, Unequal Pay	53	(1)
Nice Work if You Can Get It	54	(1)
Glass Ceilings	55	(1)
Pink-Collar Jobs	56	(1)
The Care Penalty	57	(1)
Mothers, Children, and Poverty	58	(1)
Deadbeat Dads	59	(1)
Working Parents	60	(1)
Work/Family Conflicts	61	(1)
The Demand for Child Care	62	(1)
Family Policies in Europe	63	(1)
Safe Sex	64	(1)
Reproductive Rights and Wrongs	65	(1)
People of Color	66	(18)
Who We Are	68	(1)
Asian and Latino Diversity	69	(1)
New Citizens	70	(1)
Neighborhoods in Black and White	71	(1)
Last Hired	72	(1)
Unemployment by Degrees	73	(1)
The Education Gap Persists	74	(1)
More Menial Work	75	(1)
Wage Inequalities	76	(1)
The Color of Poverty	77	(1)
Doing Time	78	(1)
Marriageable Men	79	(1)
Women Maintaining Families	80	(1)
Who's Raising the Kids?	81	(1)
Lending Discrimination	82	(1)
Affirmative Action	83	(1)
Government	84	(18)
How Big is Government?	86	(1)
Government Spending Elsewhere	87	(1)
Where Federal Dollars Go	88	(1)
The Fate of Social Spending	89	(1)
Stealth Bombers Don't Trickle Down	90	(1)
Policing the World	91	(1)
Back in the Black	92	(1)
Borrowed Money	93	(1)
Who Pays the Taxes?	94	(1)
Unfair Shares	95	(1)
Taxing Business	96	(1)
Buying Favors	97	(1)
Declining Democracy	98	(1)
Corporate Welfare	99	(1)
Is Social Security Going Broke?	100	(1)
Social Security or Insecurity?	101	(1)
Welfare and Education	102	(18)
Family Income	104	(1)
Low-Income Households Get a Smaller Share	105	(1)
Defining Poverty	106	(1)
The Likelihood of Being Poor	107	(1)
Poverty Among Children and the Elderly	108	(1)
Poverty Hurts Kids	109	(1)
Handouts for the Affluent	110	(1)
Welfare Farewell	111	(1)
From Welfare to What?	112	(1)
Bare Cupboards	113	(1)
Searching for Shelter	114	(1)
Mean Streets	115	(1)
Kid Care	116	(1)
Poor Schools for Poor Kids	117	(1)
The Price of College	118	(1)
Who Graduates from College?	119	(1)
Health	120	(18)
Hey, Big Spender	122	(1)
Spend More, Live Less	123	(1)
Look Who's Paying	124	(1)
Poor People Pay More	125	(1)
The Unhealthy Cost of Care	126	(1)
A Day in the Hospital	127	(1)
It Pays to Specialize	128	(1)
Rx = Big Bucks	129	(1)
Earn More, Feel Better	130	(1)
Too Poor for Care	131	(1)
People of Color Lack Insurance	132	(1)
African-American Children at Greater Risk	133	(1)
Managing Care	134	(1)
HMO Woes	135	(1)
Health Around the World	136	(1)
AIDS	137	(1)
Environment	138	(18)
GDP is Misleading	140	(1)
Gifts of Nature	141	(1)
Toxic Polluters	142	(1)
Taking Out the Trash	143	(1)
Environmental Racism	144	(1)
Hazardous Wastes	145	(1)
Septic Streams	146	(1)
Environmental Industries	147	(1)
The EPA is Weak	148	(1)
Free-Market Environmentalism	149	(1)
On the Road Again	150	(1)
Energy Hogs	151	(1)
When a Tree Falls	152	(1)
Endangered Species	153	(1)
Acid Rain Goes East	154	(1)
The Global Greenhouse	155	(1)
Macroeconomics	156	(18)
Slower Growth	158	(1)
Dividing the Pie	159	(1)
The Ups and Downs of GDP	160	(1)
Business Cycles	161	(1)
Sagging Productivity	162	(1)
Profits in America	163	(1)
Business Failures	164	(1)
Merger Mania	165	(1)
The Cost of Borrowing	166	(1)
The Story Behind Interest Rates	167	(1)
Disappearing Banks	168	(1)
The Changing Face of Finance	169	(1)
Keeping Up With the Dow Jones	170	(1)
Debt Trap	171	(1)
Investing for the Future	172	(1)
Unbalanced Trade	173	(1)
The Global Economy	174	(20)
Global Slowdown	176	(1)
Unemployment Elsewhere	177	(1)
Cross-Border Conglomerates	178	(1)
Have Profits, Will Travel	179	(1)
Trade Transformation	180	(1)
Cheap Labor and Imports	181	(1)
Trade, Women, and Work	182	(1)
Export Processing Zones	183	(1)
Foreign Direct Investment	184	(1)
Fair-Weather Finance	185	(1)
High-Speed Investment	186	(1)
The Euro	187	(1)
Global Free-For-All	188	(1)
International Meltdown	189	(1)
Devaluation Hits Home	190	(1)
Crying for Food	191	(1)
The Consumption Gap	192	(1)
Does Economic Growth Deliver the Goods?	193	(1)
Toolkit	194	(13)
T.1 A Guide to General Sources	194	(4)
T.2 How to Read and Write Graphs	198	(1)
T.3 Means, Medians, and Other Measures	199	(1)
T.4 Real vs. Nominal: How to Use Price Indices	199	(2)
T.5 The Census Vocabulary: Families, Households, Persons, and Heads	201	(1)
T.6 What They Call Us: Racial and Ethnic Labels in Economic Data	202	(1)
T.7 Measuring Growth: What's Gross About Gross Domestic Product?	203	(1)
T.8 Uppers and Downers: The Business Cycle	204	(1)
T.9 A Guide to the Federal Budget	205	(1)
T.10 Poverty and the Poverty Line	205	(2)
Glossary	207	(6)
Sources	213