by Dave Johnson | Oct 22, 2014 | Blog
Hong Kong's leader/chief executive Leung Chun-ying slammed pro-democracy protesters, saying that democracy would allow the poor too much of a voice. Leung said that a Chinese-style government appointed from the top allows for more business-friendly policies. I suspect...
by Bill Scher | Oct 22, 2014 | Uncategorized
Republican Governors In Trouble "The GOP Looks Surprisingly Weak in Midterm Governor Races" notes TNR's Sam Wang: "Ten incumbents are in danger of being turned out of office ... Five out of eight vulnerable Republican governors are running in states won by President...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 22, 2014 | Blog
In two weeks voters will go to the polls in a race that looks increasingly dire for Democrats. It’s not that voters agree with Republicans on the issues. On the contrary, polls show that a majority of voters across the political spectrum agree with core Democratic...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 21, 2014 | Progressive Vision
America — proudly dubbed the “indispensable nation” by its national-security managers — is now the entangled nation enmeshed in conflicts across the globe. President Barack Obama, scorned by his Republican critics as an “isolationist” who wants to “withdraw...
by Leo Gerard | Oct 21, 2014 | Blog, Economy
Income inequality is killing the economy. Retailers, bankers and Democrats agree on that. Really. It’s only Republicans who continue to insist that income inequality is great, so no one, least of all them, should make any effort to constrict the abyss between...
by Lindsay Koshgarian | Oct 21, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
With the election nearing, Americans still know what they want: job creation. Unemployment is still elevated near 6 percent, and underemployment – including people who have given up looking for work, or who are working part-time when they want to be full-time – was...
by Bill Scher | Oct 21, 2014 | Uncategorized
Midterm Elections Tight Dead heat in KY. McClatchy: "The poll of 655 likely voters found McConnell leading Grimes 44 percent to 43 percent ... Wilma Allen, 80, of Breckinridge County, said there are lots of reasons why she and her three children will vote for Grimes....
by Dave Johnson | Oct 21, 2014 | Blog, Trade
Trade deals like NAFTA have helped create terrible inequality by outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries so "investors" can pocket the wage difference. These corporate trade deals also create "corporate courts" that bypass the borders of democracy and place...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 21, 2014 | Blog, Financial Reform
The head of one of Wall Street’s most important regulatory agencies argued recently that big-bank CEOs never intended to break the law or engage in foreclosure fraud. Instead, Thomas Curry of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency tells us they weren't cautious...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 20, 2014 | Economy
We know how bad income inequality has gotten in the past few years in America, thanks largely to the work of economist Emmanuel Saez and his colleagues at University of California at Berkeley's Center for Equitable Growth. But Saez's latest paper finds that the share...
by Dean Baker | Oct 20, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
Thus far, the Ebola virus has infected three people in the United States that we know of, however Ebola hysteria seems to have infected somewhere close to 300 million. There are reports of kids being pulled out of schools and even some school closings. People in many...
by Bill Scher | Oct 20, 2014 | Blog
Over at Real Clear Politics, I explain "How Republicans Can Blow It." While we shouldn't assume the outcome in any of these close Senate races, it's true that Republicans have inched ahead in many of the contested states where Democrats currently hold seats. However,...
by Bill Scher | Oct 20, 2014 | Uncategorized
Populism Rising In Midterms? Prairie populism catching fire in South Dakota. Bloomberg: "[Democratic Senate candidate Rick] Weiland is trying something else. His campaign is a home-grown insurgency, old-fashioned prairie populism in the spirit of George McGovern ......
by Dave Johnson | Oct 20, 2014 | Blog, Economy
The economy is at stake in this election. If Republicans take the Senate, they promise to impose severe austerity -- even as austerity is proven to kill economies. Europe's economy is suffering because of its harsh austerity, and our economic recovery has been...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 18, 2014 | Progressive Vision
America must stop “following tragedy with embarrassment” and pass the End Racial Profiling Act, before the next city that’s “one dead black teenager away from burning to the ground” catches fire. “How many more Michael Browns will we have?” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 17, 2014 | Blog
Billionaire CEO Nicholas Woodman, news reports trumpeted earlier this month, has set aside $450 million worth of his GoPro software stock to set up a brand-new charitable foundation. “We wake up every morning grateful for the opportunities life has given us," Woodman...
by Bill Scher | Oct 17, 2014 | Uncategorized
Clamor Rising To End Austerity Anti-austerity backlash in Europe. NYT: "...many of the largest European countries are now rebelling against the German gospel of belt-tightening and demanding more radical steps to reverse their slumping fortunes ... France, which has...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 17, 2014 | Blog, Retirement Security
Democrats have (finally, belatedly) rediscovered that support for Social Security is a winning issue in elections. Social Security has been called the "third rail" of American politics and it turns out that talking about cutting Social Security is still like touching...
by Bill Scher | Oct 17, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
In 2012, Republicans nominated for president a private equity firm CEO with a record of outsourcing jobs. It did not go well. [fve]http://youtu.be/Ud3mMj0AZZk[/fve] In several states for the 2014 midterm elections, Republicans have done it again. And it may cost them...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 16, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
[fve]http://youtu.be/QwNRwWLKLIo[/fve] Several dozen demonstrators went to the offices of the Walton Family Foundation, the charitable giving arm of the family that owns a majority share of Walmart, on Thursday to say that Walmart should treat its workers more...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 16, 2014 | Blog
Imagine yourself part of the typical American family. Your household would have, the Federal Reserve reported in September, a net worth of $81,200. That’s not a whole lot of money. But half of America’s households would actually have less wealth than you do. Now...
by Larry Cohen | Oct 16, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision, Trade
At the deportation center in San Pedro Sula, planes land with over 100 Hondurans a day, returned from our border prisons to their native land. They are mostly young men, shackled hands and legs, who have harrowing tales of days in what they call the “ice box,” the US...
by Jeff Bryant | Oct 16, 2014 | Blog
Sometimes when you get enough people beating on the outside of a building, those sitting comfortably on the inside start to feel the vibrations. That's what it feels like is happening as the voices from the grassroots movement protesting the nation's oppressive...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 16, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Trade
Here are two contrasting infrastructure stories to following up on yesterday’s post, "Investment In Infrastructure Would Cure Today’s Slow Growth Problem": The U.S. has deferred maintaining (never mind modernizing) our infrastructure for so long (since the Reagan tax...
by Bill Scher | Oct 16, 2014 | Uncategorized
Big Money Seeks To Save Republicans Outside money swoops in to shore up Republicans. NYT: "Republican candidates for the Senate have overcome the sizable fund-raising edge held by their Democratic opponents for most of the 2014 election cycle ... The question is...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 16, 2014 | Progressive Vision
[fve]http://youtu.be/iWk3LhWTyfM[/fve] New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is a powerful, new populist voice in American politics. Last year, he swept to a stunning upset victory in New York’s mayoral race, issuing a populist indictment of the “tale of two cities,” one...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 15, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
What's going on with the stock market? Here's one piece of it. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued its World Economic Outlook last week, titled "Global Growth Disappoints, Pace of Recovery Uneven and Country-Specific." The title gives away the IMF's economic...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 15, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
On Tuesday night, progressive leaders and activists celebrated champions whose work shows that progressive leadership and governance improve the lives of hard-working Americans. Campaign For America's Future co-director Roger Hickey opened the Celebrating America's...
by Bill Scher | Oct 15, 2014 | Blog
The news in the New York Times is "Democrats’ Hopes to Gain in House Fade." This is a bit misleading, since Democrats were never expected to make gains this year. Republicans are expected to pick up some seats, but not many. They're reaching for 12 seats. Between five...
by Bill Scher | Oct 15, 2014 | Uncategorized
Mayor De Blasio: Progressive Champion Mayor Bill de Blasio honored by Campaign for America's Future in Washington. NYT: "...Mr. de Blasio attended a gala here thrown by a prominent liberal group, the Campaign for America’s Future, which deemed the mayor one of its two...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 15, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
[fve]http://www.youtu.be/l4NVzv0zGxg[/fve] Interview with Patrick Flavin, principal author of the study "Assessing the Impact of the Size and Scope of Government on Human Well-Being," conducted by host of "The Zero Hour" Richard Eskow Forget about feeling “like a room...
by Dean Baker | Oct 14, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Most economists recognize that the economy is still suffering from excessive unemployment. In fact, many acknowledge that excess unemployment has been a problem for some time. Even Lawrence Summers, who was treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and head of...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 14, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, Economy
Cutting federal spending doesn't "save money" – certainly not the way conservatives in Congress and in the states have been doing it. If you cut the Internal Revenue Service budget, that obviously increases the deficit because it lowers the government's ability to...
by Leo Gerard | Oct 14, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
Republicans have adopted a Halloween-themed campaign strategy that they hope will incite voters to run screaming from Democrats. The GOP message: Americans should be very, very afraid because the homeland is under attack from ghouls and goblins manifest as Ebola and...
by Bill Scher | Oct 14, 2014 | Uncategorized
Progressives Gather Tonight For Celebrating America's Future 2014 Awards Gala Bill de Blasio, Lee Saunders and Saru Jayaraman to be honored tonight, with Sally Kohn as MC: click here for details on purchasing tickets. AFSCME President and Award Gala honoree Saunders...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 14, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Ferguson; ISIS; Ebola; accelerating climate change; growing inequality; deepening poverty; an election likely to worsen, not reduce paralysis – pessimism of the intellect is easy these days; optimism of the will takes some work. Tonight at its annual Gala, the...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 13, 2014 | Blog
"It is hard to understate the intensity of the response to the role of big money." Mike Lux, writing at The Huffington Post in "Four Weeks Out: What Will Be the Narrative of Election 2014?," echoes something that we have been pounding on here at OurFuture.org:...
by Bill Scher | Oct 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
Warren Dings Obama Sen. Warren praises, criticizes Obama's Wall Street record in Salon interview: "When I think about the president, for me, it’s about both halves. If Barack Obama had not been president of the United States we would not have a Consumer Financial...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 13, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
As autumn descends on the nation’s capital, people are saying there’s a darkness on the edge of town. It’s born of the fear, pessimism and uncertainty that have become the Republican political brand. And if the polls are right, there’s every chance that its shadow...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 10, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
The GOP is rolling out a list of “principles” and pretending to have a “positive agenda,” because Republicans can’t tell Americans what they really want to do. Twenty years after Newt Gingrich launched the “Contract With America,” Republican Party Chairman Reince...
