Money

We must understand America's history of inequality to confront the racial wealth gap.

Republicans are again sprinting toward an economic cliff.

In 1948, the GOP passed the third biggest tax cut in U.S. history. In the next election, they learned the devil is in the details.

Following wartime opportunities west, seven million “Rosie the Riveters” found more than just jobs when they reached California.

Donald Trump's rise to power was fueled by the profits of predatory real estate ventures.

In 1887, African-American cane workers in Louisiana attempted to organize—and many paid with their lives.

How "liberal democracy" emerged from the wreckage of World War II and became the dominant ideology of our times.

Oil’s rise was as dependent on the old as much as the new. The industry also benefited from changes in agriculture.

“I am frightened by the proportions of my prosperity,” Twain said. “It seems to me that whatever I touch turns to gold.”

The godfather of supply-side economics is largely discredited by his peers, but revered by Trump and the GOP.

An oral history of the biggest one-day stock market drop in history.

In its first century the American higher-education system was a messy, disorganised joke. How did it rise to world dominance?

The wealth gap between white Americans and black Americans is stark.

Centuries of economic inequality have left Southern politics ripe for insurgent outsiders.

A conversation with the author of a forthcoming book about the twists and turns of Marx's legacy in America.

Redlining: the racist housing policy from the Jim Crow era that still affects us today.

Fears about trade prompted the decision to make Puerto Rico a colony.

Today's rhetoric about dependency and disaster relief echoes a conversation from more than a century ago.

The best growth in recent memory came after President Bill Clinton raised taxes in the ’90s.

Protectionism and exploitation at its worst.

Essential tools for critical thinking about the Puerto Rican debt crisis.

Blame the marketers.

The island’s New Deal history offers an alternative to disaster capitalism.

Credit reporting companies' immense power and lack of transparency puts consumers at risk.

The practice of “redlining” kept people of color from home loans for decades.

100 years ago, a mail-order retail giant moved swiftly into the brick-and-mortar business, changing it forever.

How tax breaks and a quasi-colonial status make the island vulnerable to disasters.

In an economy based on doing business with strangers, monitoring people's trustworthiness quickly became very profitable.

Building on vulnerable coastlines isn't about ignorance or hubris — it's about profit.

Once a cask that held crude, the oil barrel is now mostly an economic concept.