by Bill Moyers | Sep 2, 2014 | Conservatism
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart, a poet wrote, and as this year’s summer winds toward its end and elections approach, gratitude is indeed what our politicians have flowing from that space where their hearts should...
by Lynne Stuart Parramore | Sep 2, 2014 | Economy
Think your money's not going very far this year? It's not your imagination. According to new research by the Economic Policy Institute, real hourly wages declined for almost everybody in the U.S. workforce in the first half of 2014. Thanks, so-called recovery....
by Dave Johnson | Sep 2, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
Eric Cantor was a congressman from Virginia and was House majority leader. He was known for being particularly friendly to Wall Street and the giant, multinational corporations. In the June Republican primary, his Virginia constituents got fed up with this and booted...
by Bill Scher | Sep 2, 2014 | Uncategorized
Presidential Push for Minimum Wage Obama uses Labor Day to refocus on minimum wage. NYT: "Hailing examples set by employers like Kentucky State University, whose president took a pay cut to give raises to his lowest-paid workers, Mr. Obama said Congress needed to...
by Robert Borosage | Sep 2, 2014 | Jobs and Growth, Reviving Strong Unions
“Hours of chaos” is how the New York Times described the work reality of more and more Americans. It highlighted Jannette Navarra, a Starbucks barista, who is regularly forced to work part-time with fluctuating hours. She usually gets her work schedule three days...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 29, 2014 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Michael Brown was laid to rest in Ferguson, Missouri this week. But that doesn’t mean that wingnuts and right-wingers will let him rest in peace. It was bad enough when the New York Times built its profile of Michael Brown around the idea that he was “no angel.” (What...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 29, 2014 | Progressive Vision
Michael Brown has been laid to rest. The National Guard has begun “systematically withdrawing,” and calm has returned to the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. With no more dramatic scenes, and no major news to cover unless or until investigations lead to litigation,...
by Sam Pizzigati | Aug 29, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Every August, for most of the last four decades, top central bankers from around the world have been making their way to the Wyoming mountain resort of Jackson Hole for an invitation-only blue-ribbon economic symposium. This year’s Jackson Hole hobnob, once again...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 29, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Reviving Strong Unions
The other day I wrote about how FedEx has been pretending that their employees are not employees, which gets around labor standards for things like overtime, family leave and the rest. This misclassification game is just one way that big companies have been rigging...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 29, 2014 | Uncategorized
The Big Deal About the Burger King Deal Businesses Are Winning Cat-and-Mouse Tax Game" ... and the rest of us lose. New York Times: "By exploiting existing loopholes and devising new ones, some of the country’s best-known companies are making it harder than ever for...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 29, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Tax Reform
Tolstoy wrote in "War and Peace" that "kings are the slaves of history." And when the "king" in question depends on the patronage of happy customers for his well-being, his monarchy is also a slave to public opinion. Unfortunately for Burger King, which intends to...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 28, 2014 | Populist Majority
Fifty-one years ago, thousands of Americans gathered for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Today, events in Ferguson, Mo., and North Carolina show how much work remains, and how we can carry on the mission of the March. America has made tremendous progress...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 28, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
You know all those people who work for FedEx? A court has ruled that they work for FedEx! FedEx, like so many other companies, has been shifting costs onto employees by pretending they are not employees. This is called "misclassification" and this ruling matters....
by Jeff Bryant | Aug 28, 2014 | Blog, Education
This time of year, while classroom teachers and administrators in public schools are busy welcoming students back to a new school year and figuring out how they're going to cope with devastating financial constraints, advocates in the charter schools industry are...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 28, 2014 | Uncategorized
Another GOP Shutdown? Sen. Marco Rubio hints at potential shutdown fight over immigration. CBS News: “Sen. Marco Rubio hinted in an interview Tuesday that his fellow Republicans might take advantage of the fact that Congress will need to pass a spending bill this fall...
by Robert Borosage | Aug 28, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Reviving Strong Unions
On Labor Day, families gather, politicians pay tribute to values of hard work, and some workers even get an extra day off. But this Labor Day arrives with working families struggling to stay afloat. Working family incomes haven’t gone up in the 21st century....
by Dave Johnson | Aug 27, 2014 | Blog
Amidst all the news about Burger King – another company renouncing its US "citizenship" to avoid paying taxes for the roads, courts, police and the rest of the government services that made them prosperous – an idea that Campaign for America's Future has been...
by Harvey J Kaye | Aug 27, 2014 | Progressive Vision
On Labor Day weekend 2007 the Guardian "Comment is Free" editor commissioned me to write a piece on labor and progressive possibilities. I published the piece posted below, which the editor titled "TO BE FRANKLIN: Seventy years on he is still under attack from the...
by admin | Aug 27, 2014 | Uncategorized
Burger-Doughnut Combo's Nasty Taste Burger King avoids an inversion penalty with this one weird trick. Bloomberg News: "The group of investors who control Burger King Worldwide Inc. (BKW) are using an unusual strategy to avoid the tax penalty that normally applies to...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 27, 2014 | Blog, Health, Tax Reform
Our economy is broken. There’s one economy for the wealthy, and another for the rest of us. This division has been worsened by the behavior of corporate executives who manage their corporations for short-term personal gain rather than for long-term fiscal soundness....
by Dave Johnson | Aug 26, 2014 | Conservatism
Remember when all those veterans died waiting to get care? At the time there were hundreds of scare stories like these: WFMY (Greensboro, NC): "Report: 1,000 Veterans Die While Waiting For Care, VA Wastes Billions." The report was released by Senator Tom Coburn,...
by Lynne Stuart Parramore | Aug 26, 2014 | Retirement Security
In a must-read article in the current issue of Harper's magazine, journalist Jessica Bruder, adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, adds a new phrase to America's vocabulary: "Elderly migrant worker." She documents a growing trend of...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 26, 2014 | Conservatism, Tax Reform, Winning Issues for 2014
There is legislation before Congress to do something about corporations renouncing their US "citizenship." The odds are that Republicans will block it -- and not just because they have obstructed everything else. There is a wave of news about corporations using a...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 26, 2014 | Uncategorized
Will Burger King Have Its Way On Taxes? Burger King to buy Tim Hortons and move its headquarters to Canada. US News & World Report: “Miami-based Burger King is reportedly in talks to buy the Canadian-owned Tim Hortons chain of coffee and doughnut shops....
by Richard Eskow | Aug 26, 2014 | Economy
There was great economic news on Monday – for somebody. Monday morning the stock market passed another historic milestone, as the S&P 500 composite index briefly passed the 2,000 mark before ending the day on a record-breaking high. That barrier had symbolic value...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 26, 2014 | Blog, Tax Reform
Burger King is the latest company announcing plans to renounce its U.S. citizenship in order to dodge taxes. It plans to buy Tim Hortons and then pretend Tim Hortons bought them so they can claim to be Canadian. (Tim Hortons renounced its own U.S. citizenship in 2009...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 25, 2014 | Climate
If you want to know how bad the climate crisis is, and what you can do about it, check out “Carbon”; the first in a series of short films aimed at exploring crucial issues related to the climate crisis. [fve]http://youtu.be/pP-Twj2lzB8[/fve] Produced by Tree Media,...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 25, 2014 | Blog, Trade
The International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled last week that South Korean companies are "dumping" steel pipes, tubes and fittings used by oil companies – known formally as oil country tubular goods (OCTG) – into the U.S. market. "Dumping" means selling for...
by Bill Scher | Aug 25, 2014 | Uncategorized
Burger King May Invert Burger King may flee to Canada. WSJ: "Burger King Worldwide Inc. is in talks to buy Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc., a deal that would be structured as a so-called tax inversion and move the hamburger seller's base to Canada...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 25, 2014 | Progressive Vision
[fve]http://youtu.be/SUA-nDeJ8-o?list=UUeBaVCo1Abl6J-g5E1x080w[/fve] North Carolina’s Moral Mondays Movement on Friday launched a “Moral Week of Action” that will run through Thursday to demand that Republicans “repent and repeal” their public policy attacks on the...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 22, 2014 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
For most of America, the shooting of yet another unarmed, young black man laid bare the way that racism and inequality play out in our streets. For wingnuts, it was another chance to appeal to the basest of the GOP base. This week, the worst of wingnuttia is all about...
by Sharon Davies | Aug 22, 2014 | Blog
“. . . the hands of none of us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great wrongs.” –W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk The nation’s focus on the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri confers yet another opportunity for...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 22, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Europe's economic depression has now lasted longer than the Great Depression of the 1930s. Meanwhile, America's "Great Recession" also drags on thanks to cutbacks in government spending since the stimulus. Europe's leaders somehow were convinced that austerity –...
by Bill Scher | Aug 22, 2014 | Uncategorized
Questions Swirl Around Bank of America Settlement $16.65B settlement "Less Painful Than It Looks" finds NYT: "The actual financial burden for Bank of America, however, may not exceed $12 billion ... Bank of America wrote down many of its troubled mortgages years ago....
by Eileen Appelbaum | Aug 22, 2014 | Financial Reform
Michael’s Stores was taken private in a leveraged buyout on October 31, 2006. At the time of LBO, Highfields Capital Partners, which owned shares in the specialty retailer, was allowed to retain its interest – worth about $200 million. Funds of two private equity...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 22, 2014 | Blog, Trade
We have an enormous, humongous and ongoing trade deficit. This means we buy more from other countries than they buy from us and we do this every year. Trade is supposed to be balanced. Instead we have been running continuing trade deficits since the late 1970s. A...
by Lynne Stuart Parramore | Aug 21, 2014 | Economy, Financial Reform
Everyone from Warren Buffett to Robert Reich is talking about a favorite Wall Street trick called stock buybacks. But what are they and what do they mean to you? William Lazonick is a leading expert on the history of the American business corporation. A professor of...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 21, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
“This is an economic revolution,” a new online video says about automation. The premise of "Humans Need Not Apply" is that human work will soon be all but obsolete. “You may think we've been here before, but we haven't,” says CGP Grey, the video’s creator. “This time...
by Bill Scher | Aug 21, 2014 | Uncategorized
Fed Debates End of Stimulus Fed officials to debate ending monetary stimulus sooner at retreat. NYT: " An increasingly vocal minority of Federal Reserve officials want the central bank to retreat more quickly from its stimulus campaign, arguing that the bank has...
by Jeff Bryant | Aug 21, 2014 | Blog, Education
As the season for new school openings rolls out, there are reasons for a new consciousness-raising about those schools – the kind of consciousness-raising that can be brought about when there's a shock to the system like Ferguson, Mo. Of the many heartfelt, well...
