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Understanding How Policy Changes Affect Women in Poverty
Phyllis Caldwell writes: "The vast majority of people in poverty in this country are women and children. Yet far too often policy makers and even anti-poverty advocates overlook the day-to-day realities that make it especially challenging for women living in poverty to follow a traditional path to economic security. Consider the young single mom who is desperately trying to pull herself out of a cycle of minimum wage jobs, inadequate housing and health care, and limited prospects for a better future. A well-meaning advocate suggests she enroll in a job-training program that meets several evenings a week. The young woman enrolls, only to discover that there is no child care available and that the classes are being held in a high-crime neighborhood with limited access to public transportation. After struggling to make it to the first few classes, the woman drops out."

One in Four Americans Fear Hunger as Food Prices Soar
Max Finberg and Ann Steensland of the Alliance to End Hunger write: "The rapidly increasing cost of food does not just mean higher grocery bills; it means more hungry people. This month, the Alliance to End Hunger released a startling new poll revealing that one in four American voters (28 percent) fear that they or someone they know will go hungry. In some regions of the country, that number is one in three. Another 37 percent of voters said they have cut back on the amount of food they buy."

Follow This Dime
Thomas Frank writes for TomDispatch.com: "Washington is the city where the scandals happen. Every American knows this, but we also believe, if only vaguely, that the really monumental scandals are a thing of the past, that the golden age of misgovernment-for-profit ended with the cavalry charge and the robber barons, at about the same time presidents stopped wearing beards. I moved to Washington in 2003, just in time for the comeback, for the hundred-year flood. At first it was only a trickle in the basement, a little stream released accidentally by the president's friends at Enron. Before long, though, the levees were failing all over town, and the city was inundated with a muddy torrent of graft. How are we to dissect a deluge like this one? We might begin by categorizing the earmarks handed out by Congress, sorting the foolish earmarks from the costly earmarks from the earmarks made strictly on a cash basis."

The Food Crisis and Global Institutions
Alexandra Spieldoch writes in Foreign Policy In Focus: "In July, World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy organized a mini-Ministerial to complete the Doha Development Round, and couched it as a necessary means to address the food crisis. Not surprisingly, negotiations collapsed over ongoing disagreements about whether WTO members have the right to protect their food security and 'livelihoods' (jobs) from import surges. The failed talks signal a growing understanding that trade liberalization has destabilized local food systems and hurt farmers, contributing to both the long-term and short-causes of today’s food crisis. This marks a shift from the earlier globalization debates and deserves our attention."

Nike's Critics: Keeping Costs Low Causes Poor Working Conditions
Richard Read write in The Oregonian: "Nike contract factories will abuse workers, critics say, as long as the company forces the plants to make shoes and apparel for ever-lower prices."