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Vol. 8 No. 34September 1997
Features
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Essay: Labor and the Intellectuals
Despite reciprocal indifference, labor unions and liberal intellectuals can still enliven one another. -
The New Urban Gamble
Does the Carnival City model--with its casinos, stadiums, and convention centers--promise to revitalize cities? Or is it a misguided use of public investment? -
Behind the Numbers: The End of Unemployment?
A higher percentage of Americans are working than at any time since World War II. But policy-makers could wreck a dawning era of high employment. -
Controversy: Family Trouble
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The Speed Limit
It would be nice if the Dodgers returned to Brooklyn and if the economy grew faster than 2.3 percent. But neither of these things is in the offing. -
Of Our Time: Wayne's World
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Why We Can Grow Faster
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Devil in the Details
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The Martian Plan
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Grassroots Medicine
The federal government has agreed to study the medicinal use of marijuana. But there's already lots of evidence that the administration seems to be doing its best to ignore. -
Below the Beltway: The China Hawks
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State of the Debate: Dr. Business
A new book by a Harvard Business School professor who wants to reorganize medicine into "focused factories" shows just how scary the medical-industrial complex might become. -
The Neglected Remedy
Scattershot regulation of drive-through deliveries and other abuses isn't the only way to respond to the rise of managed care. There is another option: Giving consumers more of a say. -
State of the Debate: The Moral Meanings of Work
How should we think about work -- as just a necessary burden that we'd like to cut to a minimum or as the organizing focus of our lives? A number of new books about work, culture, and family suggest that we need to work for more than bread alone. -
The Mythology of Centrism
Pundits have misinterpreted Tony Blair's and Bill Clinton's victories as centrism triumphant. But voters chose leaders committed to stopping Thatcherism and Reaganism and restoring broad prosperity. -
Test the Limit
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An Invisible Community
Everyone seems to agree that public housing has no redeeming value -- everyone, that is, but the tenants.
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Vol. 8 No. 33July 1997
Features
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The Moynihan Enigma
Why the Senate's intellectual giant is a strangely ineffective lawmaker. -
Behind the Numbers: Capital's Gain
Contrary to the conventional view among economists, the shares of national income going to capital and labor have shifted. Capital's gain has been labor's loss. -
Family Feud
A reply to "Family Values, The Sequel," May-June 1997. -
The Real China Question
How to admit China and other former communist countries into the world trading club--without destroying the international economic system in the process. -
Regressive Recovery
If California's present is the nation's future, then the Golden State's split-level prosperity is an ominous social indicator. -
State of the Debate: Back to Boys' School
Tender anecdotes about elite all-boys' schools have ignited efforts to expand single-sex education to Americans from all backgrounds. But there's another side of the story. -
The Chile Con
Advocates of privatizing Social Security point to Chile. But take a closer look at who's really benefiting from the Chilean system. -
Lingo Jingo
The story told by the English-only movement is nonsense from beginning to end. No language was ever less in need of official protection. -
Popping Contributions
Last year conservatives tried and failed to destroy the effectiveness of food and drug regulation. Now they say they want only modest FDA reforms. Watch out. -
Of Our Time: Cyberpower and Freedom
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How She Got a Job
Everyone who participates in this innovative welfare-to-work program finds steady employment. Too bad it's precisely the kind of effort that the new federal welfare law discourages. -
How We Lost the Peace Dividend
After every previous war, we sent troops home and cut defense spending. The Col War is over, but real spending still runs 85 percent of the Cold War average. -
What Russia Teaches Us Now
Metastasizing organized crime, massive tax evasion, unregulated sales of missiles--the people of Russia and the world now have more to fear from the breakdown of the Russian state than from its power. Why liberty itself depends on competent government. -
The Sexual Counterrevolution
The sexual revolution brought excess as well as progress. In the aftermath of AIDS, a new puritanism threatens to repeal both.
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Vol. 8 No. 32May 1997
Features
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Up From Bipartisanship
Support for center-right bipartisan government is both misleading and dangerous. It fails to address the problems of the economically stressed, gives them no reason to vote, and could render the Democrats irrelevant. -
Behind the Numbers: The Privateers' Free Lunch
The flawed mathematical assumption behind privatizing Social Security. -
Devil in the Details
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The Big Tilt
It's not just how many take part in politics; it's who. Inequality is more pronounced in America than in other democracies, and it's growing. -
Special Report: The Crime Debate
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Controversy: Clean Elections Continued
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The Tocqueville Files: The Other Civic America
Despite fears of civic decline, the United States remains the country with the highest rate of volunteering. The explanation may be America's web of religious affiliations. -
Below the Beltway: Whistling Past the Trade Deficit
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Special Report: The Crime Debate
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Storylines: Scandals for Dummies
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Special Report: The Crime Debate:
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Of Our Time: Rules That Liberate
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Hoop Schemes?
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The Devil in Devolution
Turning power back to the states has gained wide support. But there's a reason for national decisions: One state's solution may aggravate another state's problems. -
State of the Debate: Who's Afraid of Michael Jordan?
There's no denying that blacks dominate basketball and other professional sports. But have whites rationalized black physical prowess only by equating it with mental deficiency? -
The Hidden Paradox of Welfare Reform
If former welfare beneficiaries can get jobs, they'll be better off, right? Not necessarily. Because their costs will be higher, particularly for child care and health care, they may earn more yet do worse. -
State of the Debate: Family Values: The Sequel
The Institute for America Values has helped define recent debate about the family. But its writers have the facts wrong--the policies they encourage could actually make children's lives worse.
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Vol. 8 No. 31March 1997
Features
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A Global Warning
Less developed countries are spewing dangerous emissions that will lead to global warming. But it will take money to change that--money that the wealthier, more developed nations are reluctant to spend. -
State of the Debate: Indelible Colors
A book by two political theorists argues that new, cultural definitions of race can be as insidious as the old, biological ones. -
Devil in the Details
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Behind the Numbers: Spin Cycle
Supply-siders point to economic growth during the 1980s as a vindication of Reaganomics. But adjusting for the business cycle shows that the real rate of productivity growth has been the same over the past three decades. -
The Shaming Sham
Conservatives, and even a few liberals, insist that moral shaming isn't as bad as government censorship. Don't believe them, warns a conservative writer. -
Controversy: Why Did Clinton Win?
Will Marshall and Mark Penn debate Robert L. Borosage and Stanley B. Greenberg. -
Seeing Through Computers
Computer literacy used to mean knowing how computers worked; now it means just knowing how to work with them. What we need are new critical reading skills for the emerging electronic culture. -
Overworked and Underemployed
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Bedside Manna
Marcus Welby was a myth; doctors have always cared about money. But the for-profit managed care industry makes no pretense: It's offering physicians money to make decisions that are plainly not in the interests of patients. -
How Low Can You Go?
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Can new Labour Dance the Clinton?
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Of our Time: Democracy v. Dollar
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The Limits of Markets
The claim that the freest market produces the best economic and social outcome is the centerpiece of the conservative political resurgence. But without government intervention, the market can destroy a lot of things--including itself. -
State of the Debate: The White Rage
Why has extremist violence exploded on the right? A historical look at the evolution of populist rage.
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Vol. 8 No. 30January 1997
Features
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Are Black Diplomas Worth Less?
Relative to whites, minorities have made impressive gains in education attainment. Why are they still falling behind economically? -
State of the Debate: Quayle Hunting
Dan and Marilyn Quayle send--uh, try to send--a message on family values. -
The New China Lobby
Who bought American indulgence of China? Surprise--multinational corporations that fly the U.S. flag. -
Behind the Numbers: The Misdiagnosis of Eurosclerosis
Champions of the U.S. economic system say that Europe's generous social protections cause high unemployment. But it's the global economy that's driving up joblessness in Europe--just as it increases income inequality in the United States. -
Who Governs Globalism?
For at least a generation the U.S. has propped up the global economy by absorbing the world's surplus of goods. That's not good for the U.S. or its trading partners. -
Breaching the Great Wall
China's neomercantalism harms America's economic interests. A mutually beneficial relationship will take more assertive trade policies. -
Why Boomers Don't Spell Bust
We could afford the dependent baby boomer generation once--during its childhood. We can do it again when the boomers retire. -
Is There a Social Security Crisis?
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Dead Center
The centrist politics of the election produced a shrunken electorate and mandate. Are there fresh sources of progressive energy at the grass roots? -
Below the Beltway: Goo-Goos Versus Populists
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Clean Elections, How To
Public frustration with political influence peddling hasn't been this high since Watergate, and thanks to Maine we finally have an example of how to do reform right. -
How Low Can You Go?
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Welfare as We Might Know It
Why I resigned in protest over President Clinton's signing of welfare reform--and what can still be done to repair it. -
Of Our Time: The Clinton Presidency, Take Three
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When Preferences Disappear
Proposition 209 signals the end of gender and racial favoritism in California, but it may also be the beginning of affirmative action by other means. -
State of the Debate: Tough Guys
William Bennett, John DiIulio, and John Walters say it's time liberals faced the hard facts about crime. Maybe they should heed their own advice.
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