Veteran labor journalist and Institute for Policy Studies associate fellow Sam Pizzigati co-edits Inequality.org, the Institute’s weekly newsletter on our great divides. He also contributes a regular column to OtherWords, the IPS national nonprofit editorial service.

Sam, now retired from the labor movement, spent two decades directing the publishing program at America’s largest union, the 2.8-million-member National Education Association, and before that edited the national publications of three other U.S. trade unions.

Sam’s own writing has revolved around economic inequality since the early 1990s. His op-eds on income and wealth concentration have appeared in periodicals all around the world, from the New York Times to Le Monde Diplomatique.

Sam has authored four books and co-edited two others. His 2004 book, Greed and Good: Understanding the Inequality that Limits Our Lives, won an “outstanding title” honor from the American Library Association’s book review journal. His 2012 title, The Rich Don’t Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970, explores how average Americans ended the nation’s original Gilded Age. Sam’s most recent book, The Case for a Maximum Wage, offers a politically plausible path toward ending that Gilded Age’s second coming.

Latest

Do We Need ‘Student Loans’ for Billionaires?

Students of modest means must pay a stiff price to build their capacity to contribute to society – and pay interest if they can’t afford that price. A wealth tax could apply this same principle to America’s rich.

How Corporations Built to Loot Lobby to Win

With a small army of lobbyists, WIN America corporations twist politicians into giving them tax breaks that hurt the rest of us.

WIN America Coalition Seeks to Pad Pockets with “Tax Holiday”

Tax holiday proponents have delivered losses to American workers.

America Loses: Corporations That Take “Tax Holidays” Slash Jobs

Some of America’s most flush corporations are demanding a tax holiday on their profits sitting offshore. But the last holiday produced a nasty hangover.

Stop Corporate Tax Dodgers: IPS Media Highlights

IPS is putting tax dodging corporations on the ropes.

Eric Cantor’s Defense of Job Destroyers

It’s unlikely that Eric Cantor’s continuous defense of tax breaks for so-called “job creators” takes into account job-destroying, tax-dodging CEOs.

Plutocracy with a Pleasant Philanthropic Face

Not all plutocrats scheme in the shadows like the rabidly right-wing Koch brothers. We need to learn how to recognize plutocracy’s more subtle putches. The best primer? The battle over education’s future.

Jeff Immelt, GE CEO – Corporate Tax Dodger

If there were an Olympics for tax dodging, General Electric would sweep the gold. Last year GE reaped $3.3 billion in federal income tax refunds, despite more than $5 billion in U.S. profits

Ivan Seidenberg – Corporate Tax Dodger

Phone customers paid more to Uncle Sam than the telecom giant Verizon.

John Strangfeld, Prudential – Corporate Tax Dodger

Prudential Financial is reaping low-income housing tax refunds by investing in luxury hotels.

John Faraci, International Paper — Corporate Tax Dodger

International Paper CEO John Faraci received a 75 percent pay hike in 2010. He pocketed $12.3 million.

Can Anyone Tackle Our Tax-Dodging CEOs?

A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies documents how America’s top corporate execs are stiffing Uncle Sam – and lavishly lining their own pockets in the process.

A Response to Disputes by Corporations over our Methodology

Since the release of Executive Excess 2011, several of the corporations included in our study have raised questions about our methodology. Here’s our response.

Runaway CEO Pay Helped Create the Economic Crisis; So Why Are Politicians Still Covering For Rich Execs?

A new study looks at the worst executive excesses – while Congress continues to help CEOs hide their outrageous pay rates from the public.

Big Bucks to Dodge Taxes

When tax shelters allow CEOs to take home more in pay than their entire company pays in taxes, something is very wrong.

Remembering the Moment Our CEOs Dug In

Forty years ago, U.S. corporate honchos saw their power ebbing away – to a ragtag mob of long-hairs and loony social reformers. So they did what corporate honchos always do. They asked for a memo.

A Tip for Joe the Machinist: Watch Your Back

A Labor Day reflection: Corporate America no longer even pays lip service to the importance of encouraging hard work and skill.

What would FDR Do?

We really can have a more equal America. We just need to fight for it.