| July/August 2008

THE ECONOMY
December Surprise
Is the GOP cooking the books to avoid recession till after Election Day?
By James K. Galbraith

Where Credit Is Due: A Timeline
A field guide to the loan sharks and politicos who got us into the predatory lending mess
By Nomi Prins

Foreclosure Phil
Phil Gramm helped create the credit crisis. So why is he John McCain's "economic guru"?
By David Corn

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.
By Jennifer Gonnerman

Worst of the Worst
California's convict crisis
By James Sterngold

Taming of the Screws
A guard's change of heart
By Sasha Abramsky

Texas Hold 'Em
The booming immigrant detention industry
By Stephanie Mencimer

Probation for Profit
In Georgia's outsourced justice system, a traffic ticket can land you deep in the hole.
By Celia Perry

Hard Time Out
Kids doing time for tantrums
By David Goodman

The Shawnee Redemption
Prison problems? Not in Kansas anymore.
By Justine Sharrock

A Bitter Leaf
Photographs by Marco Vernaschi
Text by Patrick Symmes
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
By Julia Whitty
Earth's poles are melting—but the visiting masses are too busy shopping for tea towels and postcards to notice.

As a public service, Mother Jones, which is a nonprofit magazine, will release the full contents of this issue online over the next several weeks. If you'd like your Mother Jones sooner—and you want to support independent investigative journalism—please subscribe now.

Editors' Note
Masthead
Contributors
Backtalk

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
By Kiera Butler
Adventures in aging gracelessly, from diaper fetishists to bikini waxes for tweens.

WITNESS
Smoke & Mirrors
By Jim Morris
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
By Kiera Butler
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.
Illustration by Jack Unruh