• Private Health Care Lobby Dictates Terms in Health Care Reform

    The frequently imbibing comedian W. C. Fields once proudly declared: “Everything I do is either illegal, immoral, or fattening.”  The adjectives used by Fields perfectly characterize the role of the private health insurance industry in the debate about health care reform.  As the debate intensifies more and more private health care profits are being recycled […]

  • Horses, Stocks, and Booze: Calculating the Losses of the Financial Crisis

    Kate’s is a local bar in a far northeast corner of the Bronx.  During the day, elderly patrons wash away their remaining years in a sea of booze-inspired camaraderie.  I peek in sometimes as much from curiosity as to remind myself of a future I hope to avoid.  A few years back someone changed the […]