Archive
Why We Need A Moratorium On The High Stakes Of Common Core Testing
By now it's become clear to anyone willing to pay attention that our nation's obsession over education standards and testing has gotten out of hand. In a moment of sanity last week, a leading proponent of the new standards-aligned tests defected from the run-up to implementation and called for a moratorium on the high stakes associated with the Common Core and its new tests.
Markey Campaigns Against President's Proposed Social Security Cuts
The Senate campaign in Massachusetts will be close and hard fought. Ed Markey, the winner of the Democratic primary, knows he has to run a bare-knuckled, knock down, full bore campaign to win. So it is notable that one of the first appeals to his supporters is to...
GOP Forcibly Making Working Families Flexible
A century ago, workers were a lot more “flexible” than they are now. Veritable Gumbies in the mills and mines and factories they were, distorting their lives to slog 10 or 12 hours a day, six – even seven – days a week. Then came the 40-hour week. And weekends. And...
Good Jobs: The Challenge of Rebuilding the Middle Class
This week, President Obama will travel to Austin, Texas to call for action on jobs. The proposals the president put forth in his State of the Union address – investing in infrastructure, expanding preschool, bolstering manufacturing assistance centers, raising the...
The 'Flexibility' Is Just An Act: GOP Bill Wages Class War On Working Families
If, like me, you're a working parent or any other adult struggling to balance the demands of work and family, you know the two biggest challenges to pulling off that balancing act: Time and Money. We never have enough of either, and have precious little control over...
60 Minutes and the Billionaire Agenda: Part 1, “Counterinsurgency Cops”
This Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes was a brilliant case study in the media’s ability to manipulate the public mind. The entire hour is worth studying, if only as one of the most illuminating and sophisticated examples of media manipulation in recent memory. Who,...
Europe (Not) Giving Up Austerity French declare end to "austerity dogma." Reuters: "The European Commission on Friday gave France two more years to meet its budget deficit target because of the country's poor economic outlook within the recession-hit euro zone. 'This...
The Republican Party Flinches Again On Debt Limit
According to the Washington Post and Politico, GOP leaders are laying the groundwork to refuse any debt limit increase this year, reneging on debt payments mandated by Congress, shredding the full faith and credit of the American government, thereby plunging the...
Hypocrites with Fat Wallets: The CEOs Who Want It All
America's top corporate executives love lecturing the rest of us about 'fiscal responsibility.' They want us to expect less from government. But they expect more, and a new report shows how they're getting it.
Austerity in De-Niall
When historian Niall Ferguson made his offensive comments about John Maynard Keynes last week, he wasn't just revealing an ugly side of own nature. He was defending his authoritarian and economically punitive ideology not only against its opponents, but against...
