Portside

The Oxfam charity says only higher wages, crackdown on tax dodging and higher investment in public services can stop divide widening

Equity, Growth and Community, a new book by Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor

Despite our growing economy and the fact that poor workers are now more educated than ever, rising inequality has worked to keep low-income people in poverty. This increase in inequality was driven by stagnating wages for low- and middle-income households. Since 1979 increasing inequality has been the largest poverty-boosting factor, outweighing racial identity and family structure and completely eclipsing the effects of overall economic growth and educational attainment

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) - what's at stake? Why the secrecy, why the rush, why cut-off debate and input? The reason is - Money, big money, says the New York Times. Major American business interests, from Nike to Boeing and Hollywood to Silicon Valley, want the deal badly. Labor and environmental groups see it as a threat to American workers at the expense of profits.

On nearly all indicators of mortality, survival and life expectancy, the United States ranks at or near the bottom among high-income countries. Pick almost any measure of social cohesion over the last four decades and you will find the United States took a wrong turn along the way. The bloated incarceration rates and rock-bottom life expectancy, the unraveling families and the stagnant college graduation rates amount to an existential threat to the nation’s future.

The callousness of America's political and business leaders is shocking. A new report from UNICEF, on the well-being of children in 35 developed nations, turned up some alarming statistics about child poverty. More than one in five American children fall below a relative poverty line. The United States ranks 34th of the 35 countries surveyed, above only Romania and below virtually all of Europe plus Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. (The Washington Post)

The Jon Stewart Mysteries Presents. Amandla Stenberg: Don't Cash Crop On My Cornrows. Do Federal Taxes Reduce Income Inequality? The Wanted 18: Movie Teaser. Jimmy Page: How Stairway to Heaven Was Written.