Economy

From staffing problems to continued battles with local communities, a look at the state of the world’s largest retailer with Lana Stewart , cashier at the Laurel Wal-Mart and a member of a worker-rights organization at the store; Mackenzie Baris, an organizer with Jobs with Justice and an activist with Respect DC; Charles Fishman, author of The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works—and How it’s Transforming the American Economy; and Rebekah Massengil, auth

After the demise of steel making, thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment could be coming to Sparrow’s Point over the next decade. We take an in-depth look at the economic possibilities for the area with Kevin Kamenetz, Baltimore County executive; Dan Gunderson, executive director of the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development; and Daraius Irani, executive director of the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University.  

Across-the-board federal spending cuts called “sequestration” were put in place March 1st.  They've already caused layoffs in Maryland. We talk with a federal public defender dealing with furloughs, and a government contractor that has laid workers off due to spending cuts at Fort Meade.

Then, Erika Robuck blends history into fiction in novels about famous authors. Her latest imagines an intense friendship between Zelda Fitzgerald and a psychiatric nurse in Baltimore.  We talk with Robuck ahead of her appearance Saturday at the Annapolis Book Festival.

April 10, 2013

The across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration went into effect more than a month ago.  Some have been delayed—the Federal Aviation Administration announced it’s waiting until mid-June to close air traffic control towers around the country, including five in Maryland.  And the number of furlough days for civilian employees of the Department of Defense has been reduced by about a third.

Under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, enacted during the Great Depression, when more than half of the nation’s senior citizens were in poverty. Ira Katznelson, professor of political science and history at Columbia, expands our definition of the New Deal by examining the domestic and global forces behind it. Katznelson is the author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and The Origins of Our Time.

March 25, 2013

What are shareholders, regulators, and institutional investors across America—and here in Maryland—doing to make corporate executive pay practices more transparent and accountable?

Lawrence Lanahan
March 22, 2013

If you own any stock, even a few shares, this is the time of year you can make your voice heard in the corner offices of the world’s largest public corporations.

Newly anointed Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer ignited a national debate over the merits of telecommuting after she demanded that her employees work exclusively from the office. We discuss the new Yahoo! Edict, and its implications for workplace culture with Sharon Kim, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School who specializes in organizational behavior; and Ray Fisman, professor of social enterprise at Columbia Business School, and co-author of The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office. Also, Rep.