Inversions May Define Midterms
"White House betting ’14 midterm elections on economic patriotism" reports The Hill: "Democrats see the tax issue as a political winner that allows President Obama to side with middle class taxpayers and against corporate executives who can be painted as disloyal and unpatriotic. They think it will be difficult for Republicans to defend the practice."
Inversions don't even help investors. Reuters: "Looking back three decades at 52 completed transactions, the review showed 19 of the companies have subsequently outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 index, while 19 have underperformed. Another 10 have been bought by rivals, three have gone out of business and one has reincorporated back in the United States ... the analysis makes one thing clear: inversions, on their own, despite largely providing the tax savings that companies seek, are no guarantee of superior returns for investors."
Third-party candidates could tip Senate races in six states reports The Hill.
"Lousy Work"
Robert Kuttner asks "Lousy Work: Will it Break Through as a Political Issue?": "The [New York] Times' Sunday article addressed the increasing number of workers in the so called 'sharing economy' -- the Task Rabbits and people who offer cut-rate rides via Uber and Lyft, and dozens more web chore-matching services. The dirty little secret of the vaunted flexibility is that you can't make a living at it, or have enough predictability in your life to raise a family. The shift in labor markets, from an economy where regular payroll employment is the norm, to one where more of us are performing odd jobs, or have regular jobs with indeterminate schedules, ought to be the top domestic political issue."
"Workforce Investment Act Leaves Many Jobless and in Debt" reports NYT: "Millions of unemployed Americans ... have trained for new careers as part of the Workforce Investment Act, a $3.1 billion federal program that, in an unusual act of bipartisanship, was reauthorized by Congress last month with little public discussion about its effectiveness ... Instead, an extensive analysis of the program by The New York Times shows, many graduates wind up significantly worse off than when they started — mired in unemployment and debt from training for positions that do not exist, and they end up working elsewhere for minimum wage."
Hunger still pervasive in America. Huffington Post: "...a blockbuster study released Monday by the relief charity Feeding America ... titled Hunger in America 2014, claims to be the largest, most comprehensive study of hunger in the U.S. ever conducted ... [It] involved interviews with 60,000 people whose households are served by the charity [that helps feed] 46.5 million people nationwide ... More than 12 million households are forced to eat unhealthy food because they can’t afford better-quality groceries ... 66 percent of households said they’ve had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care."
Immigration Action May Go Beyond Deportation Reform
WH meeting with business leaders on immigration executive action. Politico: "Obama was initially expected to focus only on slowing deportations of potentially millions of undocumented immigrants and altering federal enforcement policies. Now top aides are talking with leaders in big companies like Cisco, Intel and Accenture, hoping to add more changes that would get them on board ... The ideas under discussion for executive action include allowing spouses of workers with high-tech visas to work, recapturing green cards that go unused and making technical changes for dual-purpose visa applications [as well as] tweaks in the existing agriculture worker program. The administration is also considering provisions for low-skilled workers for industries, like construction, that would allow individuals with temporary work authorization to gain work permits"
Agricultural industry suffering labor shortage. McClatchy: "...agricultural powerhouses near the border, such as Florida and California, employ tens of thousands of seasonal immigrant laborers every year. But deeper in the homeland, such as the fruit orchards of the Carolinas, farmers confront a blue-collar labor vacuum ... the labor shortage has become a permanent issue for growers and workers alike ... Immigrant workers who slipped over the borders years ago are aging out of the workforce, and their younger, more able-bodied counterparts are being kept from the fields because of the bureaucratic clutter. But the crops and the growing season don’t wait."
