Economic Issues

The Villaraigosa Hangover

Thanks to the mayor's $700 million union deal, L.A. faces a $216 million deficit next year. Here's what happened

Los Angeles Ranks High Among Cities With Young Adults Slacking at Home

Now we understand why so many young Angelenos can afford iPhones, glasses without lenses and pool parties at the Standard hotel rooftop. Turns out nearly a third of you are living at home with mommy and daddy. A new study about young adults (those 20-34) living with their parents during this Great ... More >>

UCLA Business School Wants to Privatize, Forgo Tax Dollars

As the UC and Cal State systems struggle with budget cuts and increasingly unhappy and unruly student bodies, one UCLA school is bucking the trend and actually inviting more cuts. In fact, UCLA's Anderson School of Management wants zero tax dollars: It's asking to be cut off from the system almost ... More >>

Waning Support for Jerry Brown Initiative to Raise Taxes

Gov. Jerry Brown's ingenious and inventive plan for California's budget woes is to raise taxes. He wants your support for an initiative that would increase taxes on the mildly rich and on retail items. He's bringing a ballot initiative to you, but the support you've shown for this appears to be wa ... More >>

Skid Row vs. Gensler

Who should get $1 million in poverty funds, the rich or the poor?

Nearly Half of All Young Americans, 6 Million Californians, Officially Living in Poverty

​So the Great Recession has been over for nearly two years, huh? The latest U.S. Census data indicates the United States has more people living in poverty than, oh, ever. Well, almost ever. The 46.2 million of Americans below the line are as many as have been recorded in the 52 years governme ... More >>

Battle For Brooklyn: Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley's Documentary Has Echoes in L.A.'s Football Stadium Controversy

Construction begins on the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn​ There's a moment towards the end of Battle for Brooklyn when Prospect Heights resident Daniel Goldstein peers through a fence at a construction site teeming with workers and cranes. The area was recently home to dozens of small bus ... More >>

'No Recovery in Sight,' Says UCLA Anderson Forecast

Adam TinworthShop for America.​Things were looking up there for a second, right? Unemployment was creeping down, people were starting buy houses again, you got the new iPhone. And then, boom: Housing prices went toilet-bound again, unemployment barely budged, and the stock market is experie ... More >>

Dining Below the Line: Could You Eat on $1.50 a Day?

Just_[von]Bernard/Flickr​How about $1.50 for five whole days? Charity group Global Poverty Project, an international non-profit organization campaigning to end Extreme Poverty, asks you to find out as part of their Live Below the Line campaign. Through this initiative they hope to help America ... More >>

One Out Of Five In California Unemployed, According To '60 Minutes'

CBS'60 Minites' asks how many in this room full of jobless folks have degrees.​In a Debbie Downer of a story about California's jobless masses (yeah, we heard, the recession is over), CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday dropped this bomb: Twenty-two percent -- more than one out of every five people -- ... More >>

Do You Drink Up When The Economy Is Down? Booze And Bad Times Go Hand-In-Hand (Sort Of)

mydrunkbuddy.comDo you drink up when the economy is down?​Got the Great Recession blues? Maybe you could use a drink? A single malt perhaps? No, you're a Sparks gal, right? You're not alone. Drinking is at a 25-year-high, even though spending on alcohol has declined sightly, according the Cal ... More >>

Does Your Wallet Feel Empty? You're Not Alone: Nine In 10 Californians Say The Economy Is Bad

​When headlines beamed last month that the Great Recession was not only over, but that it had taken its last breath in June, 2009, did you scratch your head too? We thought so. If the recession is over, why does it feel worse now than when it started in 2007 and dive bombed in 2008? A new Fie ... More >>

Frat Boys Rejoice: California Legalizes Free Alcohol Samples At Grocery Stores

​Ah, the California legislature. It can't balance a budget to save the state's life. Nineteen million plastic bags in landfills, waterways and gutters each year? No prob for this bunch. And one-third of all bills in Sacramento have special-interest sponsors and are twice as likely to pass as t ... More >>

Blue Skies Forecast For L.A. Trade

Port of Los Angeles.​2008 and 2009 were described as "dismal years" for international trade at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. But 2010 and 2011 are looking up, according to a report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

Influence

Number Of Illegal Immigrants Decreased By One Million Since 2007

​The number of illegal immigrants in the United States was down about 800,000 last year compared to 2008, reportedly as a result of the recession and fewer job opportunities. The decrease from 11.6 million undocumented workers in 2008 to 10.8 million in 2009 was reported by the U.S. Department ... More >>

Council Committee Recommends Cuts To Police, Fire Departments

​Getting down to serious business, the Los Angeles City Council's Budget and Finance Committee on Monday recommended that cuts be made to the police and fire department -- sacred cows in city budgeting -- as well as to council offices, including the mayor's. The city is operating $208.5 milli ... More >>

Democratic Elites Rethink

While voters stay away from the polls

Not So Fast, Antonio

L.A.’s role in farm deal contains a shovel full of legal questions

The French Revolt

Rejection of a corporate Europe

Fighting High Rents

In L.A.? Good Luck.

Welcome to the Concrete Jungle

John Powers in the land of no culture, surreal Cancún

USA, Inc.

Bush’s privatization plan is a new spoils system for corporations and the GOP

Fox in the Hen House

A progressive for L.A.’s redevelopment agency

Letters

Davos, American Style

The state of global protest

Hitting the Streets

The top six demands of anti-globalization protesters

Back to Business

A new war gives new urgency to the globalization debate

The Next Cold War

On the need to create a diplomatic, economic, political, cultural — and military — approach

Bad Timing

Globalization meetings, protests called off in Washington

Bicoastal

Middle-classlessness, viewed from L.A. and D.C.

Seeds of Wrath

Silencing debate on biotech foods

Notes From the Front

The Wall defines two Americas in Quebec

Where Money Didn’t Talk

In Santa Monica at least, the good guys won

Global Stench

Come to Tijuana to experience globalization

Masters of Deceit

Behind Santa Monica’s breathtakingly bogus living-wage initiative

Good vs. Evil

The truth about living wages in Santa Monica

Can Biology End World Hunger?

Clinton's Wedge

China cracks the Democrats

Right vs. Might

Exposing the bad guys in Santa Monica’s living-wage war

Less Bank — More World

First Seattle, then A 16. Now it’s time to ask not where — but what?

D.C. Diary

Downs and ups of a protest

And Stay Out

Jonathan Club turns away Santa Monica officials

Living Hell

Santa Monica’s powerful business community is trying to beat workers on fair-wage issue

After Seattle

Free-trade protests coming soon to a city near you

Overriding Democracy

Bernie Sanders on the WTO, the IMF and the democratic process

Reinventing the World

Seattle summit brings 134 governments and tens of thousands of protesters together — to disagree on the rules of the global economy

Raising Santa Monica

Groundbreaking plan would double low-wage pay

No Welfare for Lockheed or Maximus

Private firms derailed in bid to take over county aid program

Where's the Left?

American liberalism at century's end