Archive
As Manufacturing Jobs Flounder, New Book Has Answers
"Going down to Mississippi wages does not signal a bright future for American economy." - Harold Meyerson President Obama campaigned with a promise to add 1 million new manufacturing jobs in his second term. So far only 13,000 have been added. The AAMeter illulstrates...
Smart Talk On Raising the Minimum Wage – A Day Of Action
The floor is falling out from under workers. The federal minimum wage is not enough for a full-time worker to lift a family of three out of poverty. That is not right. The minimum wage for tipped workers – a miserly $2.13 an hour – hasn’t been raised in two decades....
Money Rules – But In Congress, People Are Supposed To Rule
Wall Street held itself a big fat profit party last week. The nation’s six largest banks reported $23 billion in profits. That’s for one quarter – three months. Pop the Champagne. Buy another Lamborghini. Well, if you’re a Wall Street banker, that is. Not if you’re a...
Progressive Breakfast
Republicans Ready Fresh Hostage-Taking Operation Republicans consider threatening government shutdown over ObamaCare. The Hill: "Senate Republicans, including two members of the leadership, are coalescing around a proposal to block any government funding resolution...
A Federal Bailout For Detroit’s Pensions?
Here's an economic free-association test. Read the following sentence: The federal government should bail out Detroit city worker's pensions so that retirees can be paid in full. Some people will approve of the idea. But others will be shocked or angry. They'll...
ALERT: Student Loan Vote Tuesday. Keep Up The Pressure
Senators are set Tuesday to vote on a terrible student loan deal that would ultimately raise rates to 8.25 percent for undergraduates and 9.5 percent for graduate students. They claim the deal will lower rates from their current point of 6.8 percent, but this is only...
Want To Understand The Budget? Don't Read The Newspaper.
Last week, Media Matters released a report showing that traditional media outlets typically do not put raw budget numbers in any sort of understandable context. In other words, the media will usually breathlessly sensationalize a budget deficit of 750 BILLON DOLLARS...
The Coming Fast-Track Trade Outrage
Trans-Pacific Partnership – the corporate sovereignty treaty – is coming and they're going to try to push it through Congress with "Fast Track." It's really, really important to pay attention to this one. You have seen what the "free trade" agreements have done to...
Obama To Stump For Jobs President to drive economic agenda this week. CNN: "Obama will return to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois on Wednesday to kick off a series of speeches about his economic plan ... The president will also visit Warrensburg, Missouri, on...
When House Conservatives SNAP, Here's How Bad It Gets
House conservatives revealed a lot about themselves and their priorities when they passed a farm bill that did not include nutrition programs like SNAP – the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known best as "food stamps" – but fast-tracked, without real...
