The Word of the Summer Is “Victoriotic”

Donald Trump Is the Epitome of Constant Bragging About Inflated Success, But We’re All Guilty, Especially in California

It’s the word of the summer: Victoriotic.

You won’t find it in the Oxford English Dictionary or Merriam-Webster, at least not yet.

It began its life as an epithet, hurled by my oldest son, age 7, at me.

“Don’t be victoriotic!”

I was guilty as charged. I had a long losing streak against him in the board game, “Sequence.” Finally, I had broken that streak, and I celebrated like a Super Bowl-winning quarterback, sticking my finger in the air and doing an elaborate dance in our living room. I also may have …

By Joe Mathews | August 18, 2016

How Opening a Savings Account Can Close the Racial Wealth Gap

With Modest Public Investment, Low-Income Families Can Build a Financial Cushion Against a Recession or Medical Emergency

By Beadsie Woo | March 21, 2016

Like many economists who care about American families struggling to make ends meet, I spend a good amount of time thinking about how parents can earn more income to give …

Do You Take Your Coffee With Sugar, Milk, or Guns?

In My Search of the Origins of Our Daily Elixir, I Kept Encountering Armed Men

By Murray Carpenter | January 7, 2016

One morning a few years ago, I met a coffee grower in an upscale apartment complex at the edge of Guatemala City. He drove a Toyota Sequoia customized as a …

This Is How We Saved the Middle Class in the 1980s

We Faced Inequality and Unemployment 35 Years Ago. What We Did Then Could Work Again Now.

By Michael Bernick | January 5, 2016

It’s easy to think that, in the world of employment and anti-poverty programs, nothing ever changes, that the same joblessness continues even as the government spends billions of dollars each …

Last Year There Were 800 Fewer Homicides in L.A. Than in 1992

The Recent Crime Surge Doesn’t Compare to the Tsunami of Violence 20 Years Ago

By Miles Corwin | December 2, 2015

The recent surge in the violent crime rate in Los Angeles after more than a decade of decline, the hostility in inner cities against law enforcement, the high-profile incidents of …

Every Asthma Attack Is Its Own Perfect Storm

The More We Study the Disease, the More Complex We Understand It to Be

By Anne Kelsey Lamb | October 20, 2015

About a month ago, I received a call from a journalist wanting my perspective on recent data showing an increase in asthma ER visits in certain parts of California, particularly …

inequality