by Leo Gerard | Jan 13, 2015 | Blog, Economy, Jobs and Growth, Minimum Wage
The jobs report Friday set off cheering: a quarter million positions added in December; unemployment declining to 5.6 percent. This good news arrived amid a booming stock market and a third-quarter GDP report showing the strongest growth in 11 years. It’s all...
by Roger Hickey | Nov 20, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision, Winning Issues for 2014
Election 2014 was a sad replay of 2010. And it didn't have to be that way. In early summer 2010, three progressive economic activists – myself, Dean Baker, and Robert Kuttner – met with Obama political adviser David Axelrod in his tiny office in the White House, steps...
by Bill Scher | Nov 17, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision, Winning Issues for 2014
As debate reignites between populist progressives and self-described "centrists" over why Democrats lost the midterms and how they should recalibrate, it's worth recalling that Republicans won in part by co-opting populist positions and themes. Sure, there were plenty...
by Bill Scher | Nov 7, 2014 | Blog, Winning Issues for 2014
Two Democrats in competitive Senate races bucked the Republican tide. One is an incumbent, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and one a U.S. House Representative pursuing an open seat of a retiring Democrat, Gary Peters of Michigan. What did they do that the other...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 31, 2014 | Blog, Trade, Winning Issues for 2014
Democratic North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan is running for reelection with ads that talk about trade. "Kay's going to bat for us against China." Trade is a huge issue for many blue-collar voters and in "rust-belt" regions that have been wiped out by the offshoring of our...
by Jim Hightower | Oct 23, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Jobs and Growth, Minimum Wage
Gosh, time flies when it’s pushed along by a jet stream of greed. It seems like only yesterday that Wal-Mart announced, with much self-congratulatory fanfare, that the super-rich retailing colossus wasn’t a scrooge after all. Indeed, while the world’s largest purveyor...
