CSR Wire 11/13/2011 By Michael Shank Income inequality isn’t only unfair; it’s bad for the economy The fact that America’s biggest companies paid no federal taxes may come as no surprise to Washington. The report released earlier this month by nonprofit groups Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on […]
Politico 11/12/2011 By Michael Shank Things are changing quickly in Cuba. This week, on Nov. 10, the Cuban government, under President Raul Castro’s leadership launched its most progressive economic reform initiative yet by legalizing the sale and purchase of private property. For Cuba watchers and Castro critics, this is noteworthy […]
ROLL CALL 11/01/11 By Michael Shank and J.J. Messner With the excitement about Moammar Gadhafi’s downfall beginning to fade, Libya’s new management has begun governing and reconstructing the war-torn nation. Plenty of attention is being paid to the governance angle: Is the National Transitional Council a legitimate, representative body? When […]
Huffington Post 11/11/2011 By Michael Shank Rick Perry’s inability to recall three US government agencies is indicative of this country’s equivocal commitment to “high levels of education”, one of eight factors essential to a stable and peaceful society, as reported recently by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). Without […]
Politico 11/09/2011 By Michael Shank Having grown up in small town Kidron, Ohio, tucked between the Smucker’s plant in Orrville, the Rubbermaid plant in Wooster, and the Hoover plant in North Canton, I can attest to the depressed wages and flagging industry plaguing Ohio. Thanks to the U.S. tax, trade […]
Huffington Post 10/11/2011 By Michael Shank On the heels of the US government’s announcement that personal income of Americans has dropped for the first time in two years, Britain’s Richard Wilkinson — co-author with Kate Pickett of the book Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone — came to […]
Russia Today 10/07/2011 As America marks the 10th year of war in Afghanistan, the world is calling it the longest and the most expensive US war ever. And as Michael Shank from George Mason University told RT, the war is a failure in all ways. “The war in Afghanistan is […]
THE GUARDIAN 10/05/11 By Michael Shank The huge costs of social deprivation make the US poorer, even as the top 1% gets richer. Fix that and you fix the budget deficit On the heels of the US government’s announcement that personal income of Americans has dropped for the first time […]
Huffington Post 10/05/2011 By Michael Shank As US Congress continues to quack its way through the Super Committee quagmire, a seemingly non-germane offshore issue has surfaced vis-a-vis Iraq. The connection between the two is anything but inconsequential, despite receiving scant review in Washington. If one wonders how US debts and […]
Huffington Post 10/03/2011 By Michael Shank Since “climategate” first broke the news two years ago, American efforts to enact effective climate policy at the federal level have been significantly undermined by a confluence of events — from the emergence of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives in the […]