Less than 2 Percent of Carpenters Are Women—Meet the Master Builder Working to Change That
Maria Klemperer-Johnson is getting women ready for a growing and high-paying field by teaching them to build eco-friendly tiny homes.
Economy
Bitcoin’s Growing Influence: How Peer-to-Peer Currencies Are Taking Off
The decentralization and bank-free nature of this digital currency is enjoying wider acceptance. Meanwhile, governments are beginning to borrow from its ideas.
Escape from an L.A. Sweatshop: How Modern-Day Slaves Become Lobbyists
Lured from Mexico into forced labor at an American factory, Flor Molina’s human trafficking story was typical. What’s remarkable is what she did next.
For Safer Factories, CEOs Are Listening to Workers on the Frontlines
The future of corporate responsibility means hearing firsthand from factory workers about their conditions.
Farmer Startups? How Incubators Are Helping Small, Sustainable Farms Take Off
Training farms known as incubators are helping immigrants and others get into farming. But Congressional wrangling over the Farm Bill has put their future in question.
Detroit Bankrupt? Six Ways the Motor City Is Thriving
National media accounts of Detroit's bankruptcy miss the growing industries, strong communities, and policy changes laying the foundation's for the city's recovery.
The TPP Is Another Job Killing Trade Deal—So Why Are Both Parties Supporting It?
Factory owners in the United States say that the Trans-Pacific Partnership—which is being negotiated this week in Brunei—will force them to lay off workers. Yet opponents in Washington are few and far between.
Mountain Grown: Appalachia’s New Local Food Economy
Hungry for okra, collards, and trout? In Appalachia, you can now get all your soul food cravings from local farmers.
Putting Workers on TV: MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Bringing Labor to Prime Time
While the days when every city paper had a labor beat may be gone, Hayes is finding new ways to get the issues facing workers into the national conversation.
Co-Op Academy Teaches Workers to Build Green and Cooperative Businesses
GRITtv's Laura Flanders speaks with the founder of the program and takes you inside one of its classes.
No Time for Volunteering? 4 Policies that Can Help
To truly encourage widespread volunteerism, we’d need to make sure that everyone (not just the well-to-do) have the time to do it.
Striking Fast Food Workers: “We Can’t Survive on $7.25”
A movement to improve pay and work conditions in America’s fast food restaurants appears to be gathering steam.
Infographic: Your Stuff’s Not As Cheap As You Think It Is
What do we really trade for all of the cheap stuff we buy?
What the US Can Learn From Africa’s Booming Economy
Seven out of the ten fastest-growing economies are in Africa. Behind that is a surge in healthy young people and an emphasis on local markets.
It’s a “Story Problem”: What’s Behind Our Messed-Up Economy
The peoples of earlier times prospered from the guidance of simple stories that offered answers to their deepest questions. We need those now more than ever.
Like Shopping at Local Businesses? Now You Can Invest in Them, Too
A newly formed company based in Seattle makes it easy to put your money to work in the local economy.
Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young: A New Economy for Present Times
Laura Flanders interviews the directors of Shift Change, a film about the cooperative business movement.
What the Boston Tea Party Can Teach Us About Countering Corporate Power
Before there was Citizens United, a modern Tea Party movement, or national momentum to ban corporate personhood, this 2003 article from the YES! archives showed that resistance to corporate power is just as patriotic as Boston’s original Tea Party.
A Caring Economy Requires Building Bridges—Not Burning Them
Traditional organizing makes opponents into “enemies,” but a new crop of activists is using love and empathy to create new alliances and possibilities.
Should There Be a Maximum Wage?
Countries like Egypt and Switzerland have placed regulations on how much executives can earn. Here’s why the U.S. should consider doing the same.
Better than Cyber Utopia: How the Internet Helped Us Create the Sharing Economy
Back in the ’90s, people thought the Internet was going to open up a zone of perfect cyber-freedom. It didn’t work out that way. But the Internet’s real significance may be found elsewhere: in a growing sector of the economy based around peer-to-peer sharing networks.
A New Deal for Appalachia’s Forests: Growing Biofuels?
The mine-ravaged communities of Eastern Kentucky have been increasingly abandoned by the coal economy. Could growing biofuels jump-start a new local jobs market—and renew the land in the process?
Worker-Owned Window Factory Opens for Business
When the company known as Republic Windows and Doors closed its Chicago factory, the workers raised the money to buy back the company themselves. The worker-owned cooperative they formed opens today.
Why the TransPacific Partnership is a Scary Big (Trade) Deal
A super-sized NAFTA, the TPP gives foreign corporations privileges that can override domestic laws on environmental health and citizens’ rights. Here’s why we shouldn’t let it pass without a fight.
The Bright Side of the Money Crisis
Is this “the most exciting time to be alive in human history”? The economists and scientists interviewed in this film think so, and the reasons are all about the chance to create a more fair and sustainable global economy.
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