by Terrance Heath | Aug 8, 2014 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Sen. Rand Paul turned tail and ran away when confronted by undocumented DREAMers. But the GOP has a “Latino problem” it can’t run from, and right-wingers seem determined to make it worse. Sen. Paul was with fellow-Republican Rep. Steve King in Iowa when undocumented...
by Jeff Bryant | Aug 8, 2014 | Blog, Education, Winning Issues for 2014
A common admonition progressives have gotten used to hearing over the years is to support more conservative Democratic candidates because "Republicans are worse." This admonition makes some sense in electoral politics, when, in most cases, progressives face a ballot...
by Bill Scher | Aug 8, 2014 | Uncategorized
Pro-Immigration Republicans Keep Winning Sen. Lamar Alexander wins TN primary, another immigration reform victory. W. Post: "His survival is a testament to an emerging political reality: Republicans who support reform can survive the conservative backlash ......
by Richard Eskow | Aug 8, 2014 | Blog, Financial Reform
Preliminary reports say that a $16 to $17 billion settlement will soon be announced between the Justice Department and Bank of America. That would break the record for the largest bank settlement in history, set less than a year ago by a $13 billion agreement between...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 7, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
The right-wing argument that we shouldn't increase the minimum wage because doing so especially hurts the job prospects of young and low-skilled workers is not standing up to scrutiny. The latest evidence comes from two University of Delaware economists who have...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 7, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
The U.S. Department of Commerce has released U.S. trade figures for June. The numbers show some improvement from the previous month, but the trade deficit is still humongous. The overall monthly U.S. international goods and services trade deficit declined 7% to $41.5...
by Emily Schwartz Greco | Aug 7, 2014 | Economy
By Emily Schwartz Greco and William A Collins For the first time since 1997, the U.S. economy just added at least 200,000 jobs per month for six months running. GDP grew at a 4 percent annual clip between April and June. The percentage of Americans who describe the...
by Bill Scher | Aug 7, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama Says He Will Address Inversions Obama pledges to act on inversions. Politico: "'“We don’t want companies that up until now were playing by the rules looking over their shoulder at some competitor gaming the system. … We want to move quickly — as quickly as...
by Robert Borosage | Aug 7, 2014 | Blog, Populist Majority, Progressive Vision
Should populists declare victory and go home? Despite money-drenched politics, Washington gridlock, the richest few capturing virtually all the income growth in the economy and corporations deserting the country to avoid taxes, the fanciful notion that populists have...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 6, 2014 | Conservatism
On Saturday morning, 500,000 Toledo, Ohio, residents woke to an urgent warning that their tap water could make them very, very sick. Toledo’s water crisis is over, for now, but the “perfect storm” that created it rages on. Mayor D. Michael Collins lifted the tap water...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 6, 2014 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
In a Detroit News op-ed this week, Michigan Republican Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land separated herself from most Republican lawmakers and voiced opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement currently being negotiated. Her op-ed included this: I...
by Bill Scher | Aug 6, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
David Brat's Republican primary defeat of Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.) was widely attributed to a groundswell of right-wing anti-immigrant fervor, despite the fact that Cantor had taken the lead in blocking immigration reform, and despite the fact that their congressional...
by Bill Scher | Aug 6, 2014 | Uncategorized
Walgreen To Stay, More Inversions To Come Walgreen responds to pressure, won't leave US to dodge taxes. WSJ: "Walgreen Co. has decided not to relocate its corporate headquarters, people familiar with the matter said, amid complications in pulling off the transaction...
by Roger Hickey | Aug 6, 2014 | Blog, Tax Reform
Yesterday afternoon the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch reported the news: “Walgreen Stock Tumbles on Report It Won’t Invert.” Citing unnamed sources (and Sky News), the bulletin reported that Walgreens has decided not to “invert” the company’s nationality to become...
by Editors | Aug 5, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
Cheryl Harrington’s story is the coveted “American Dream” story. She is the daughter of immigrant parents who set up two small bakeries in Boston, where she learned the business by spending almost every moment of her childhood helping to bake holiday cakes, pies and...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 5, 2014 | Blog, Tax Reform
Several American corporations are using a tax loophole scheme called "inversion" to get out of being American corporations obligated to pay American corporate tax rates. They buy or merge with a non-U.S. corporation (usually located in a tax haven), pretend they are a...
by Bill Scher | Aug 5, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
Two months ago, Sen. Rand Paul declared, "I say everywhere I go I am for immigration reform.". Everywhere, with the exception of the Barefoot Bar in Okoboji, Iowa, when caught between anti-immigrant bigot Rep. Steve King and two undocumented immigrants who came to...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 5, 2014 | Blog, Economy
Thomas Friedman recently filed an editorial from, and about, Madagascar. In a new piece for Salon, we point out the flaws in his thinking - flaws that mirror his shortsighted and trend-infatuated view of the domestic economy. Friedman is an ideal exemplar of...
by Leo Gerard | Aug 5, 2014 | Conservatism
House Republicans last week overwhelmingly endorsed suing President Barack Obama for delaying part of the Affordable Care Act, a law Republicans hate and condemn and voted 50 times to repeal. So, really, the president did exactly what the GOP claims it wants. But...
by Bill Scher | Aug 5, 2014 | Uncategorized
Yes, Inequality Hurts Growth New report shows inequality slowing growth. AP: "The rising concentration of income among the top 1 percent of earners has contributed to S&P's cutting its growth estimates for the economy. In part because of the disparity, it...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 5, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
Rev. Reuben Eckles is worried about what the Federal Reserve is going to do next. He has a lot of reasons to, in fact – members of the New Day Christian Church in Wichita, Kan., where he is pastor. The decisions that Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and her board of...
by Sam Pizzigati | Aug 4, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Jobs and Growth
The Commerce Department released some revised figures on America’s economy last week. Previous numbers, Commerce researchers noted, had overestimated the share of the nation’s income going to workers and underestimated the share going to America’s asset-rich....
by Bill Scher | Aug 4, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
Last month I listed the "16 House Republicans Who Could Lose For Blocking Immigration Reform" incorporating incumbents who are in districts that "professional congressional handicappers ... deem to be competitive races, and where according to Latino Decisions poll...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 4, 2014 | Conservatism, Jobs and Growth
The New York Times' Neil Irwin today identified the five sectors of the economy that are serving as a drag on growth. As it turns out, his conclusions about the reasons the economy "keeps underperforming" tie directly to what we've been saying about conservatives...
by Bill Scher | Aug 4, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama Readies Executive Order... WH planning immigration executive order by "summer's end" reports W. Post: "Obama aides have discussed a range of options that could provide legal protections and work permits to a significant portion of the nation’s more than 11...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 4, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
Our long national nightmare is over – for the moment. Congress has adjourned for summer recess after a session that can safely be described as “historic,” both for its historic lack of accomplishment and the historically low regard in which it is now held by the...
by Bill Scher | Aug 1, 2014 | Blog
In 2012, Republican state legislators scrambled to pass Voter ID laws in hopes of suppressing Democratic turnout. As I noted earlier this year in a Daily Caller essay, the strategy "backfired ... serving only to goad minority voters into making an extra effort to show...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 1, 2014 | Blog
The Labor Department reported today that 28,000 manufacturing jobs were added in July. The report added, "Job gains occurred in motor vehicles and parts (+15,000) and in furniture and related products (+3,000). Over the prior 12 months, manufacturing had added an...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 1, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
House Speaker John Boehner called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's idea for passing immigration reform "Nutso." Maybe Boehner hasn't taken a good look at his own party. Then again, who can blame him? No doubt Boehner was stinging from his latest humiliating defeat....
by Bill Scher | Aug 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
House GOP Incapable Of Solving Child Migrant Crisis "Chaos" in House after leadership pulls border bill. W. Post: "The congressional chaos ensured that President Obama’s administration will not have the resources necessary to stem the recent tide of tens of thousands...
by Roger Hickey | Aug 1, 2014 | Blog
Today's Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report finds payroll employment increased by 209,000 in July, slightly slower growth than last month, and the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 6.2 percent. Coming after this week’s GDP report that found the economy was...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 1, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
We recently interviewed Dean Baker, economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, on the Federal Reserve’s response to recent economic developments. A clip of the interview can be found above. Highlights of the conversation included Baker’s...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 31, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Saying that "taxpayer dollars should not reward corporations that break the law," President Obama on Thursday issued another executive order designed to help low-wage workers. In February the president issued an order that federal contractors pay their employees...
by Editors | Jul 31, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
Dyann Jaggers has been a federal contract cook for 25 years. Though the work is hard and she’s about to turn 66, she feels that she can’t retire. Her finances just won’t allow her to rest. “I am a mother and a grandmother, and I am struggling,” she told people...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 31, 2014 | Blog, Education
Anyone who saw the remarkable HBO series "The Wire" remembers the scene in the fourth season, focused on Baltimore public schools, where the term "juking the stats" defined how corporate-driven re-engineering of the public sphere has distorted institutions so they no...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 31, 2014 | Uncategorized
Bank of America Fined Bank of America Ordered to Pay Nearly $1.3 Billion in Mortgage Case. New York Times: "A federal judge has ordered Bank of America to pay nearly $1.3 billion in penalties for its role in defrauding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into buying thousands...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 31, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled Tuesday that employees who work at McDonald's are employees who work for McDonald's. This is actually a big deal because it means that McDonald's' low-wage employees can start going after the larger company for issues...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 30, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Did you know that companies are subsidized by our government when they move jobs and production facilities out of the country? A Senate bill to stop this tax break was filibustered Wednesday by Senate Republicans. Will we ever know which companies — and countries —...
by Emily DiVito | Jul 30, 2014 | Economy, Gender Justice
As women and their families continue to struggle with the demanding, and sometimes impossible, balance of work and family life, the Make it Work Campaign, launched earlier this summer, hopes to act as an outlet for their frustrations and an ally in their fight. Vivien...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jul 30, 2014 | Blog, Economy
One of America’s top apologists for our billionaire status quo has a rather daring new approach to defending inequality. He’s claiming to be an egalitarian. And not just any egalitarian. Tyler Cowen, the director of a Koch brother-backed academic center, is claiming...
