Are the myriad crises besetting California's economy new, or do they have their origins in longstanding practices that denied millions of residents access to public goods and services? Daniel Martinez HoSang challenges the notion of a lost Golden Age by examining the history of racialized ballot measures in California.

Mike Daisey has traveled to faraway islands and sprawling Chinese factories, and he's used what he learned there to craft two monologues about materialism, the meaning of money, what he calls the religion of finance, and the human cost of our love affair with electronic gadgetry. Also, Stephanie Rearick describes a system of alternative currency called TimeBanking.

If it feels to those of us who live in California that ground zero of the economic crisis is right here -- well, we might not be wrong. Radical economic geographer Richard Walker speaks about the importance of California in the meltdown, from housing to manufacturing, fiscal crises to tremendous inequality. And he considers, as attacks on public sector workers continue apace, what lies at the heart of the crisis, and what the future holds for the Golden State.

Derivatives, options, futures, swaps -- such byzantine financial inventions make the economic crisis seem unknowable. But, as Seth Tobocman and Eric Laursen contend, that's a politically convenient way of seeing the world. They have set for themselves the task of explaining the crisis and doing so in a way that is comprehensible to the woman or man on the street. And the comic book is their medium of choice.

John Maynard Keynes died in 1946, but Keynesianism, in one form or another, is alive and well: the British economist's name has been invoked repeatedly since the global economic meltdown began in 2008. But how much do we really know about Keynes, and what did he really say and write? Peter Clarke has written a new book about Keynes's life and ideas. (Holiday encore presentation.)

John Maynard Keynes died in 1946, but Keynesianism, in one form or another, is alive and well: the British economist's name has been invoked repeatedly since the global economic meltdown began in 2008. But how much do we really know about Keynes, and what did he really say and write? Peter Clarke has written a new book about Keynes's life and ideas.