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The article discusses national political power and economic policy in the United States. The Republican Party leaders before Bill Clinton believed in the economic power of Adam Smith's "invisible hand" or Market Fundamentalism. The results of conforming to this dogmatic belief during a 25-year period are briefly mentioned. The Democrats of the 1930s promoted a benevolent, activist government with the New Deal. "The Lost Art of Democratic Narrative," by Robert Reich categorizes American politics into four story lines. This suggests that moral language influences economic activity and progressive ideas can be promoted with an organizing narrative that is based on a "moral economy".

In this article, the author observes that the escalating threats against Iraq by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush have pushed corporate scandals out of the headlines in 2002. The author asserts that this could well be deliberate, because the crisis in corporate America has the potential to shift the basic parameters of political debate in the U.S. He also argues that morality is the very stuff of politics; it is how insurgent groups justify their demands. To end the right's dominance, the author advises that Americans have to learn to mobilize their own moral language and moral narratives.

The article discusses the problems faced by the Americans in implementing full employment in the United States. There are huge differences between U.S. President Ronald Reagan's vision of full employment and the left's. Most left-wing proposals include an increased minimum wage, improved health and safety standards. The first and most obvious problem is in seizing the old liberal language of jobs and growth by the public relations coup. A potentially more serious problem is that in emphasizing full employment the left ignores the cutting edge of economic reality, in Reagan's America: there are jobs, but a diminishing proportion of them pay enough to support a middle-class life style or even a modest level of comfort and dignity.

Presents letters to the editor about prison industry in the U.S., published in the journal "The Nation." Comment on the article "Prisons for Profit," by Eric Bates, about the private prison industry in the U.S., published in the January 5, 1998 issue of the journal; Decline in crime rates and expansion of prisons in the U.S.; Construction of new prisons.

Presents letters to the editor about welfare economics in the U.S., published in the journal "The Nation." Concept of full employment in the U.S.; Importance of job strategy in the expansion of welfare state in the U.S.; Economic policy and its importance in a welfare state.