
Who Wrecked the Economy?
Will the next president take office against a backdrop of economic improvement? Or has something deeper and more intractable gone wrong?
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DEPARTMENTS
OUTFRONT
Gaming the carbon-offset market; Hillary Clinton, Watergate conspirator; Israel’s pro-diplomacy Zionists; Location, Location; can our reporter buy an AK-47?; extreme summer camps; Greenpeace’s trash is a spy’s treasure; what your tax dollars won’t buy; MoJo readers send a kid to college.
EXHIBIT
Forever Young
Adventures in aging gracelessly, from diaper fetishists to bikini waxes for tweens.
WITNESS
Smoke & Mirrors
You’re probably unfamiliar with the toxic element that may have sickened thousands of workers—and industry is spending a small fortune to keep it that way.
PRACTICAL VALUES
This Is Your Brain on Cell Phones
Is your cell phone making you sick—or just giving you a hang-up?
MEDIA JONES
Ethan Brown on an Iraq War movie that isn’t a bomb; John Cusack says anything; David Sedaris’ true lies; plus more book (A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry, This Land is Their Land), film (The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández), and music (Season of Sweets, Diamond Hoo Ha, Exit Strategy of the Soul, Two Men With the Blues) reviews
P.S.
No wild left behind.
FEATURES
THE ECONOMY
December Surprise
Is the GOP cooking the books to avoid recession till after Election Day?
Where Credit Is Due: A Timeline
A field guide to the loan sharks and politicos who got us into the predatory lending mess
Foreclosure Phil
Phil Gramm helped create the credit crisis. So why is he John McCain’s "economic guru"?
SLAMMED
Inside America’s broken—and broke—prison system
Welcome to the Age of Incarceration
We are locking up 1 in every 100 American adults—and going bankrupt in the process.
Worst of the Worst
California’s convict crisis
Taming of the Screws
A guard’s change of heart
Texas Hold ‘Em
The booming immigrant detention industry
Probation for Profit
In Georgia’s outsourced justice system, a traffic ticket can land you deep in the hole.
Hard Time Out
Kids doing time for tantrums
The Shawnee Redemption
Prison problems? Not in Kansas anymore.
A Bitter Leaf
In Bolivia, Evo Morales has tried to deliver on a populist revolution. But as impoverished peasants increasingly turn to the cocaine trade, will any hope of a better life be blown away?
March of the Tourists
Earth’s poles are melting—but the visiting masses are too busy shopping for tea towels and postcards to notice.
Cover illustration by Viktor Koen