Kathleen Geier

When this story appeared on one of my listservs, I must confess that my pulse quickened and my eyes lit up. A general strike, ‘ey? Mark Serwotka, head of Britain’s Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, says labor unions in Britain have been discussing organizing a one-day general strike “to fight back against cuts to […]

As you no doubt have heard by now, Friday’s jobs report was pretty awful. Two newly released reports document the devastating effects our high-unemployment, low-growth economy is having on millions of American workers. One report, the Pew Charitable Trust’s Hard Choices: Navigating the Economic Shock of Unemployment, is an in-depth study of families who had […]

Sometimes, I think our society is becoming more and more Dickensian. Unfortunately, I don’t mean Dickensian in the sense of the big happy family gathering around the hearth for a jolly Christmas feast, or the flinty-hearted miser experiencing a life-altering event that, at long last, causes him to rediscover his humanity and become a benefactor […]

Brad DeLong on Friday’s dismal jobs report: Twenty years from now, young whippersnapper economic historians will come to interview me. They will ask: “Why don’t you think Ben Bernanke was the worst Fed Chair since the Great Depression–worse even than the hapless G. William Miller–because of his failure to understand even one of (a) the […]

The dB’s were one of the great power pop bands of late 70s and 80s. Originally from North Carolina, they were New York City-based. They put out a few outstanding albums that didn’t get anywhere near the attention they deserved (the first two, which were their best, were originally available in the States as imports […]

Last week, Kate Losse’s review of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In unexpectedly made headlines when one of Sandberg’s PR people sent Losse a startling private tweet that read, “There’s a special place in hell for you.” This was paraphrasing Madeline Albright, who once famously said, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help […]

This is my review of Sheryl Sandberg’s best-selling book, Lean In. I tried to place various incarnations of it elsewhere, but by the time I pitched them most publications were Sandberg’ed out. I couldn’t get my hands on advance galleys of the book and had to wait until it was published to get a copy. […]

This week was potentially historic in the battle for gay rights, as the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could significantly advance the right to same-sex marriage. During arguments it became apparent that Justice Scalia didn’t realize that gay adoptions were legal (clearly, the man doesn’t get around much, and/or is not a […]

Good morning and Happy Easter to one and all! In honor of the day, I’m posting this clip from the 1948 MGM movie Easter Parade, which I love for many reasons. One of the most delightful things about this scene is the gender role reversal, which is especially unusual for its time. It starts with […]

This week, someone hipped me to this amazing YouTube video, which I wanted to share with you all. It’s an 18-minute film made in 1996 about a group of ostracized 8th grade girls who were known in their school as the “Dirty Girls.” As the LA Weekly reports, the film was screened at a few […]