Written with Leo Hindery Jr., Chair of the Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation
America is facing a catastrophic jobs crisis. Not since the Great Depression has official unemployment hovered above nine percent – where it is today – for more than 20 months. Millions of American have given up looking for a job altogether. more »
The nightmare for far too many is Cyborgs. The public fears HAL, the 2001 Space Odyssey computer that killed astronauts rather than forfeit its objective.
So terrified of the sentient machine, citizens overlook the allegory. The soft-spoken, reasonable-sounding HAL behaves exactly like a greed-driven, multi-national corporation. The corporate mission is profit. more »
The President went to Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Virginia to deliver a speech on education, calling on Congress to fix and reauthorize No Child Left Behind by the fall. more »
Not the wars. Not greenhouse gasses. Not even the deficit. The issue most important to Americans is jobs.
Despite that, jobs failed to make an appearance in the State of the Union address.
The talk was all about business. Business was doing better. Business needed taxpayers to help pay for research and innovation. Business will get government help to eliminate pesky regulations. more »
The Washington Post ran a story how hard it is for a family making only $250K a year. Just who could a story like this be written by and for? How many ways does this story mislead its readers? If you want to write about hardship write some stories about and for the rest of us! more »
Mike Stark has posted a provocative on-the-street interview with Barney Frank about the recently released Fed data. Frank offers what is now a standard defense of the Fed's bailout operations: Without them, the economy would have collapsed, so critics should just quit whining. more »
Everybody knows that Social Security helps grandma pay her grocery bill, but many forget that it does much more. Social Security survivors benefits are still the largest and most generous life insurance program in the country--insuring 98% of American children against the loss of a parent. For the family of an average worker who is married with two children, Social Security is the equivalent of a private life insurance policy worth nearly $500,000. I was reminded of how important Social Security survivors benefits are by a shocking statistic in the news. USA Today reported last Friday that the number of Americans purchasing life insurance has reached its lowest point in 50 years.
Nearly 2 million U.S. workers are facing premature elimination of federally-funded unemployment benefits if Congress doesn't act by November 30. Yet the talk dominating Washington, D.C. these days is about extending George Bush's tax giveaway to the rich. Really?
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