Poverty
A Town’s Housing Crisis Exposes a ‘House of Cards’
HAILEY, Idaho — Near the private jets that shuttle billionaires to their opulent Sun Valley getaways, Ana Ramon Bartolome and her family have spent this summer living in the only place available to them: behind a blue tarp in a sweltering two-car garage. With no refrigerator, the extended family of four adults and two young […]
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As Latin America Shifts Left, Leaders Face a Bleak Reality.
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — In Chile, a tattooed former student activist won the presidency with a pledge to oversee the most profound transformation of Chilean society in decades, widening the social safety net and shifting the tax burden to the wealthy. In Peru, the son of poor farmers was propelled to victory on a vow to […]
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Is the World Really Falling Apart, or Does It Just Feel That Way?
Has the world entered a time of unusual turbulence, or does it just feel that way? Scanning the headlines, it’s easy to conclude that something has broken. The pandemic. Global grain shortage. Russia’s war on Ukraine. Political and economic meltdown in Sri Lanka. A former prime minister’s assassination in Japan. And, in the United States: […]
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In South Asia, Climate Change Worries Take On Fresh Urgency
FATEHGARH-SAHIB, India — When the unseasonably heavy rains flooded the fields, and then the equally unseasonable heat shriveled the seeds, it didn’t just slash Ranjit Singh’s wheat harvest by nearly half. It put him, and nearly all the other households in his village in northern India, that much further from financial stability in a country […]
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The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers
In 1789, before the slave rebellion, the marquis bought 21 recently kidnapped Africans before leaving for France. But he didn’t indicate where they were put to work, so the commission valued them at an average rate, down to the cent: 3,366.66 francs. In the end, it awarded Cocherel’s daughter, a newly married marquise, average annual […]
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At Davos, a Referendum on the World Economic Forum
The small ski town of Davos, high in the Swiss alps, has heightened security measure in place during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, when armed guards perch on hotel rooftops while world leaders and business executives sip champagne below. Yet today, everything that Davos stands for — globalization, liberalism, free market capitalism, […]
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A One-Woman Rescue Squad for Homeless Students
“The fact that there’s this cadre of liaisons who are committed to the program has pushed schools to pay more attention to homeless kids,” said Maria Foscarinis, a longtime housing advocate who lobbied for the 1987 law. While only about 57 percentof homeless children were enrolled in school when the law passed, the share soon […]
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Cash Aid to Poor Mothers Increases Brain Activity in Babies, Study Finds
The question of whether cash aid helps or hurts children is central to social policy. Progressives argue that poor children need an income floor, citing research that shows even brief periods of childhood poverty can lead to lower adult earnings and worse health. Conservatives say unconditional payments erode work and marriage, increasing poverty in the […]
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Child Tax Credit’s Extra Help Ends, Just as Covid Surges Anew
That didn’t happen. Polls found the public roughly divided over whether the program should be extended, with opinions splitting along partisan and generational lines. And the expanded tax credit failed to win over the individual whose opinion mattered most: Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, who cited concerns over the cost and structure […]
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