Anonymous's blog When the Midwest votes on November 4, it will have a major – perhaps decisive – impact on the balance of power: both in Congress and in the region’s statehouses. But oddly enough, it won’t tell us much about the national mood or infl ...
Anonymous's blog So many Midwestern towns and cities have lost so much. Local banks vanish. So do local banks, high schools, businesses. In both small towns and the poorer neighborhoods of big cities, too many components of civilization have gone awa ...
Anonymous's blog American corporate leaders love to complain about the nation’s high corporate tax rate, one of the highest in the world. This rate, they say, is stifling business investment and encouraging U.S. corporations to move their headquarter ...
Anonymous's blog Midwestern farmers need to have a good talk with the executives at Walgreens. Otherwise, they may end up like the big drugstore chain, with a big political black eye coupled with a hit to their bottom line. As most readers know, Walg ...
Anonymous's blog Everybody knows the problems with Midwestern manufacturing – the shift to the Sun Belt, followed by outsourcing and now, the technology revolution. These woes don’t need detailing because, when we think of manufacturing in the Heartl ...
Anonymous's blog Whether booming or busting, no two cities are alike. But each has something to learn from others, especially in the brutal post-industrial competition ushered in by the age of globalization. Nobody is doing a better job of comparing ...
Anonymous's blog Few politicians have seen their reputations dive so far and so fast as Richard M. Daley, the former mayor of Chicago and the symbol of what’s great and what’s grim about the city he ruled for 22 years. Daley is in the news right now ...
Anonymous's blog The world, and the Midwestern part of it, are on their own for the next three weeks. The Midwesterner is taking a mid-summer break, and will be back in mid-July. We leave town with a wish that sunny skies and balmy breezes soothe the ...
Anonymous's blog Last week we reviewed the work of Thomas Piketty, the French economist whose surprise blockbuster, Capital in the 21 st Century, charts a growing inequality, especially in the United States. According to Piketty, this inequality is c ...
Anonymous's blog Thomas Piketty is a problem. If the best-selling French economist has got it right, much of what we thought we knew about economy and society—about how the world really works—is wrong. For instance: A rising tide doesn’t lift all boa ...
