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Recent Z Nightly Commentaries
Wise: Resolutions for Radicals
Jan 26, 2000
I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, or use the new year as an excuse for significant reflection on the one just ended. But this year, I'm making an exception. After all, we have (arguably, I know) entered a new millennium: and the end of a thous
Wise: Springing the "Diversity Trap"
Jan 11, 2000
You know you're in trouble when Ronald Reagan starts to sound progressive. And you really know you're in trouble when so-called progressives make him sound that way, thanks to their own pathetic gesticulations on one or another issue.
Wise: "Springing the Diversity Trap"
Dec 16, 1999
You know you're in trouble when Ronald Reagan starts to sound progressive. And you really know you're in trouble when so-callYou know you're in trouble when Ronald Reagan starts to sound progressive. And you really know you're in trouble when so-called pr
Wise: The Trouble With Tolerance
Nov 27, 1999
They came in the mail again, even though I never ordered them: those personal address labels that say "teach tolerance" -sent out by the Southern Poverty Law Center: America's favorite civil rights group. The one run by Morris Dees: America's favorite cru
Weisbrot: Time to End Debt Slavery
Oct 31, 1999
It has become a truism that "there are no easy answers" to the world's most pressing economic and social problems. The phrase is often repeated by academics, policy wonks, and others whose occupation immerses them in the details of real or imagined soluti
Weisbrot: Budget Baloney
Oct 20, 1999
How much falsehood and stupidity should the media allow to go unchallenged in public debate? At what point do journalists and the press have an obligation to step in and supply the necessary facts and explanations, so that the public can have a chance to
Wise: Kill First, Ask Questions Later
Oct 15, 1999
It's been nearly four decades since the last execution in Tennessee. During that time, my state has resisted boarding the killing train engineered by folks in places like Florida and Texas, where execution has been refined to a near science, applied with
Weisbrot: The Looting of Russia
Sep 29, 1999
What were they thinking? When executives at the Bank of New York saw billions of dollars floating in from the home computer of a Russian businessman with ties to organized crime there, did they really believe that these were just ordinary profits?
Weisbrot: Growing Concerns Over WTO
Sep 25, 1999
In just a couple of months thousands of environmentalists, steel workers, longshoremen, AIDS activists, farmers, and others will descend upon Seattle in a "mobilization against globalization." They will hold marches, protests, teach-ins, and conferences.
Weisbrot: Washington Fiddles While East Timor Burns
Sep 15, 1999
The violence and crisis in East Timor has raised pointed questions about U.S. foreign policy and what we stand for in the world. It was only months ago that we bombed Serbia for 78 days, killing hundreds and perhaps thousands of innocent civilians, suppos
Weisbrot: What Everyone Should Know About the Budget Debate
Sep 03, 1999
This commentary is for those who really want to understand the debate that has been raging over what to do with the projected Federal budget surpluses over the next 10 years. It's not as difficult as it seems.
Wise: The Kids are all White
Aug 26, 1999
Let me get this straight: if people of color respond to an unjust verdict in a police brutality trial, not to mention years of racial and economic oppression, by taking to the streets, burning stuff, looting stores and engaging in assorted violence, it's
Weisbrot: Trade Wars: Where's the Beef
Aug 16, 1999
Should countries have the right to set health and safety standards for the food that their citizens eat? Should they be allowed to exclude foreign-produced foods that don't meet national standards? Or should these questions be decided by the World Trade O
Wise: Hate Crimes
Aug 12, 1999
There is no question so irrelevant as the one to which all or nearly all can respond in like fashion. Thus, asking people their views on child molestation, or whether or not they'd like the schools to be "better" has always seemed absurd: like asking if t
Weisbrot: Fed Preemptive Strike
Jul 09, 1999
The Fed launched a "pre-emptive strike" this week against an unseen enemy -- inflation -- by raising interest rates one-quarter percentage point. With inflation at its lowest level in 30 years (2.1%), why would the Fed want to start down a path that could
Wise: Whiteness and the Recollection of History
Jul 03, 1999
For the writer, there's nothing so frustrating as to sit in front of a keyboard and find oneself at a loss for words. To know there are a million things which need saying, and yet, you can't think of even one. Having experienced this often, I've devised a
Wise: The Threat of a Good Example
Jun 20, 1999
Occasionally when I'm speaking to college students, attempting to inspire at least a few to commit themselves to social justice as a way of life and perhaps career, I'm asked the question for which there is no easy answer; the one that goes: "What's the p
Wise: The Devil Made 'Em Do It: Social Crisis and the Misuse of Faith in America
Jun 01, 1999
I mean, what does one do if Satan really is the author of all this unhappiness? IÕm pretty sure that at that point gun laws and conflict resolution training become sortaÕ useless.
Weisbrot: No Change at Treasury
May 17, 1999
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin picked a good time to resign. As a senior White House official said, Rubin "made his fortune selling at the top of the market."
Feb 15, 2000
What are the limits to corporate greed in the year 2000? We may be about to find out. The pharmaceutical companies, whose rate of profit is more than three times the average of other corporations, have been using their enormous clout to block prescription