Bee Wilson, author of SWINDLED: The Dark History of Food Fraud from Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee, writing in the New York Times about the Chinese milk scandal:

THE milk was marketed as pure and wholesome, and it looked fine to the naked eye. How were the mothers to know they were poisoning their babies? They had paid good money for it on the open market. It would take thousands of sick children before lawmakers did anything to stop it.

China in 2008? No, New York City in 1858. Missing from the coverage of the current Chinese baby formula poisoning, in which more than 53,000 babies have been sickened and at least four have died, is how often it has happened before…

“There’s a book that’s come out right now, by prominent economist—irrefutable—looking at the evidence showing that when Democrats have been in charge of the economy, the economy has grown faster and it’s also been fairer in the sense that everybody benefits. And when the Republicans have been in charge, the economy has grown slower and there’s been greater inequality. And this is, you know, looking back over the last 80 years.”

–Barack Obama

As reported last week by MSNBC, Barack Obama spoke about key ideas found in Larry Bartels’ new book Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age during a stop on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania.