I wish I could say the nation was still reeling from the disaster at Massey Energy Company that killed 29 coal miners just two weeks ago when American worker safety took another hit on Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico. 

But the nation was not reeling from the coal disaster—the funny-sounding volcano trapping European and American travelers in their hotels and airports filled the front pages. Jon Stewart didn't riff on it, and critics complain that Fox News downplayed Massey's role in the 29 deaths.

At the time of my writing, the cause of the British Petroleum oil rig blast that killed 11 workers is unknown. The magazine Popular Mechanics speculates it was a freak explosion, coming deep within the Earth. Gasses that built up and couldn't take it anymore. In the Massey Coal explosion, methane gas is blamed.

But this blame frame is wrong. The causes of these deaths are not freak gassy buildups—a...

Goldman Sachs is being both poked by the SEC—Goldman may not have actually broken the law—and attacked mightily when the agency started talking to the press creating sensational front-page stories in The New York Times last week.

But going after Goldman is not the same thing as breaking up big banks: the ones that got bailed out and were at the center of the crises. In this era, when public opinion against banks is at an all-time high, it seems like a progressive agenda should be articulated and introduced in Congress. The public-option advocates in health-care reform were stymied by the fact that most people are satisfied with their health-insurance companies and trust their doctors. That is not the kind of support that banks enjoy.

An especially cogent essay by Ryan Avent for the Economist's Web site explains why a progressive agenda for financial reform is particularly hard to...

A recent New York Times article profiled a 28-year-old Greek hairdresser who said she could retire with a pension at age 50 because she was in a "hazardous occupation." The reader was supposed to guffaw at that point and come away understanding all there was to understand about the Greek debt crisis—presumably it is caused by overly generous pensions. 

Never mind that there is a very low probability that she will stay in the job and retire at 50. The picturesque story substituted for facts. Back home in the United States, states and localities' are also facing Greek-like budget crises. Fingers point to the pension systems (and the employees who get them) as the goat.

Yet, as Boston College economist Alicia Munnell reminds us, government pensions are much better financed now than they were 30 years ago. Funding was haphazard and there was little to no accounting for liabilities. ...

Betcha Tiger Woods' strokes and even the low growth in faculty salaries beat the Greek bailout as yesterday's most emailed newspaper stories.

But the situation in Greece matters greatly. Here is the news. The Euro nations struck a deal to give Greece a line of credit at 5-percent interest; in return the Greeks committed to fiscal austerity and a saner budget process. (Tough love happens in recessions.) Germany went along and, no, they didn't require the Greeks to sell one of those nice islands.

I agree with Paul Krugman that the Greeks are mostly in trouble because of the worldwide recession (tourists vacationing at the Grand Canyon, not Athens). Greek lessons for the United States? Growth helps end recession (and deflation), but though growth is required to end long-term debt, it also requires short-term debt.

But there is also another lesson in political economy here. The United...

In the middle of last night, rescue and recovery operations, along with any hope that any miners would be found alive, ended in Montcoal, West Virgina.

After the Sago Mine disaster in 2006 -- a run-of-the-mill coal mine accident by American standards, but dramatic because the frantic rescue operation was televised and chilling media stories described the bonehead mistakes made by management and regulators -- you'd think we would care that we mine coal by losing human life.

The explanations about coal mining deaths range from the inherent danger of mining coal to "antiquated safety equipment, lax enforcement and a culture that discourages safety complaints."

There is also a "bad evil guy" explanation.

Don Blankenship is evil guy number one. The head of Massey Coal wrote to supervisors in 2005 that if mine workers ask to build roof supports or take other safety measures, "ignore them a...

The unemployment rates came out again yesterday and on the surface they didn't look so bad; grim, though, that the percent of long-term unemployed has climbed and more people have dropped out.

And the gap between the sexes is still huge: Women's unemployment rate stood at 8 percent, while men's is 10 percent. And, this is the first time women have outnumbered men ever in a paid labor force -- in any country and at any time.

Never, ever has this happened.

The implications are staggering, and got personalized for me after just reading a new nice book about young Americans by New York University sociologist, Kathleen Gerson.

Imagine being that "fly on the wall" when your child is asked (by a trusted professional): What is your ideal partner? What kind of work and family life do you expect to have? Who will take care of your children? How did your parents and childhood form your...

The public-finance story sweeping the news today is that something is wrong with Social Security because in 2010, not 2016, the trust fund has to redeem some bonds to pay benefits.

Do not add Social Security to your list of problems or to the nation's list of problems. We are not like Greece or some other emblematic nation (real or imagined) that is handing too much wealth to too few pensioners. On the contrary, we have one of the lowest pension-replacement rates among developed nations.

Since 1984, when Congress modified a Reagan Social Security Commission plan and raised Social Security revenue and cut benefits, boomers have been mandated to save money for their retirement by paying more in taxes than is paid out in benefits. The excess bought special-issue, risk-free government bonds that pay above market rate. At some point those bonds would be redeemed to pay benefits.

That is...

This weekend, the nation was transfixed by drama, as one side, then the other, seemed sure to win, and then finally a dramatic upset occurred. No, not health care, but at the NCAA basketball tournament, where a number one seed (Kansas) lost in the second round to Northern Iowa, on a three-pointer with very little time left. (Note: my original post said the loss was in the first round, and the shot was at the buzzer. I've corrected it here.) I am not a sports fan but my boyfriend pointed out that the really interesting thing about the game was the name of the all-American lad from West High School in Iowa City who made the winning shot -- Ali Farokhmanesh.

Ali's father, a former player for the Iranian Olympic volleyball team, came to America for an education and stayed here. Ali, says one of his teammates, is "one of the hardest workers I've ever met." He has never seen his...

There are radical voices in the strangest places.

Take a look at the US News and World Report Money Guide 2010. You would expect an upbeat assessment.

Instead you get heartache.  

Read Phillip Moeller's article "Tough Times Are Molding Tough Consumers" in the March 2010 Money Guide issue (it is not online). One couple did everything right -- they worked for decades, they saved for retirement, they followed investment advice. They had paid off their home and had $450,000 in retirement accounts. In their mid 60s they had to retire because of health issues and layoffs. But the financial crises made them borrow against their house and their standard of living has fallen sharply.

It seems that Social Security is the only sure thing in this family's life. I wish the magazine would tell us what public-policy lessons we can learn from these tragedies.

Another story should speak to...

It's that time of year when the students who didn't get internships for the summer are scrambling. They are pretty desperate and it isn't just for the money. Some of the most interesting and important internships for students' careers are unpaid or nominally paid.  As the Economic Policy Institute and Demos  point out (I am on EPI's board and a senior fellow at Demos),  "Internships, once a rare bonus for students, have become a standard component of a college graduate's resume." Internships are becoming another way in which low-income students are disadvantaged in the economy.

(For those in Washington, check out the Economic Policy Institute, Demos, and Campus Progress's upcoming forum on this topic.)

Advocates for low- and middle-income people rightly point out that low- and middle-income students have to work cleaning houses and slinging burgers while their well-heeled peers get...