by Dave Johnson | Jun 19, 2014 | Blog, Trade
Another secret trade deal has leaked to WikiLeaks and it looks as if it is one more effort to lock into law the interests of certain already-huge corporations above the interests of governments, their citizens and potentially competing businesses. As with leaks from...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 19, 2014 | Jobs and Growth, Tax Reform
On Wednesday the Obama administration came down firmly against giving corporations a repatriation tax holiday – a tax break to corporations for bringing back into the United States profits they stashed overseas to avoid taxation. That should be a fatal blow to a...
by Bill Scher | Jun 19, 2014 | Blog
36,120 Virginia Republican primary voters just tossed out the House majority leader, a sign that the GOP civil war continues to simmer. But earlier this month, conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat opined that it's the Democratic coalition that is a...
by Rev. William Barber | Jun 19, 2014 | Progressive Vision, The New Populism
How do we build a people’s movement? We start with vision. Prophetic moral vision seeks to penetrate despair, so that we can believe in and embrace new futures. It does not ask if the vision can be implemented—questions of implementation are of no consequence until...
by Derek Pugh | Jun 19, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
Right now taxpayer dollars are not only being used to subsidize, but also expand, the low-wage economy on a massive scale. President Obama could sign an executive order today that would help halt wage theft and place over 20 million Americans on a pathway to the...
by Bill Scher | Jun 19, 2014 | Uncategorized
President Rejects Repatriation WH states opposition to tax "holiday" for multinational corporations. Reuters: "President Barack Obama does not support the idea of a corporate tax repatriation 'holiday' that some Republicans in Congress have said could help boost the...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 19, 2014 | Blog, Tax Reform
Medtronic is as American a company as they come. The surgeon who created its original technology was born and raised in Minnesota, where he lived his entire life. He was educated at a public university there, which is where he eventually conducted his research....
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 18, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
A plan unveiled today in the Senate to raise enough money to keep the federal fund that pays for surface transportation projects from drying up within the next two months comes with a dollop of plain truth: "Congress should be embarrassed that it has played chicken...
by Lynne Stuart Parramore | Jun 18, 2014 | Economy
How do you decide who to marry, or whether to marry at all? How many children to have? Whether to engage in short-term hookups or long-term partnerships? We don't like to think that economic forces outside our individual control can shape the most intimate aspects of...
by Emily DiVito | Jun 18, 2014 | Gender Justice, Jobs and Growth
Women represent 72 percent of all workers in tipped-wage jobs – those with a federal minimum wage of just $2.13 an hour. That means that women are disproportionately placed in the very compromising position of their having to please customers and impress employers in...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 18, 2014 | Economy
While conservatives fret over breadwinner moms and caregiver dads, Democrats are working to create a more family-friendly economy, starting with a family-friendly workplace. I attended a Working Fathers and Families Meet and Greet on Tuesday, hosted by Sen. Patty...
by Bill Scher | Jun 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
Fed Expected To Lower Expectations Fed criticized for prematurely reducing stimulus. NYT: "Federal Reserve officials, who have persistently overestimated the strength of the economic recovery, predicted last June that the economy in 2014 would finally grow more than 3...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 18, 2014 | Blog, Trade
President Obama talked and took questions about manufacturing at TechShop Pittsburgh Tuesday. He touted his efforts to boost manufacturing and even showed off his DODOcase on his iPad because the DODOcase prototype was developed at a TechShop. The president's talk was...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 18, 2014 | Blog, Trade
Last week Treasury Secretary Jack Lew (D-CITI) gave a major address on the economy. (Transcript here, video here.) But the biggest fixable factor affecting jobs and the economy wasn't mentioned at all: the trade deficit. In fact, a Google search of "Jack Lew" and...
by Thom Hartmann | Jun 17, 2014 | Health
There are some things in this world that shouldn’t be turned into profit-making machines, and healthcare is definitely one of them. Believe it or not, there was a time in America when in almost every state health insurance companies and hospitals were required to be...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 17, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
Ketchup king H.J. Heinz Co. announced last week that it's working with Ford to convert tomato waste into auto parts. Now that's an innovative Fusion! In addition, it is further proof that Americans can do anything. They sent a man to the moon and a rover to Mars. They...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 17, 2014 | Blog, Economy
The go-to intellectual guardians of our corporate order — those conservative analysts whose op-eds appear regularly in the Wall Street Journal — have a problem. Their defense of plutocracy just isn’t selling. Two events this spring have now put this failure in...
by Bill Scher | Jun 17, 2014 | Uncategorized
WH To Act On Manufacturing Obama to use executive action to boost manufacturing. McClatchy: "...he will announce: More than 90 mayors and local leaders have committed to the ‘Mayors Maker Challenge’ to increase the number of locations and equipment available ......
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 17, 2014 | Financial Reform
Drinking too much of the Wall Street gin caused a power-intoxicated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to swerve into a political crash. Just as we'd think teenagers watching vivid videos of tragic car wrecks would help persuade them to not drink and drive, you would...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 17, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew (D-CITI) gave a major address on the economy last week at the New York Economic Club. (You can read the transcript orwatch the video.) He called the speech a "chance to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities we face." His speech...
by Editors | Jun 16, 2014 | Education
[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7FbqmqdzDc[/fve] A petition drive that drew more than 300,000 signatures in support of a student loan refinancing bill was not enough to prevent a Senate filibuster of the bill, but supporters of the effort are continuing the...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 16, 2014 | Blog, Economy
Here are some depressing statistics: In 2013, CEOs of S&P 500 companies made 331 times as much as their employees. Your average American worker not in a supervisory role made $35,239, while the average CEO made $11.7 million, according to the AFL-CIO Executive...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 16, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
[fve]http://youtu.be/n1EDpE38-t0[/fve] AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka characterizes his vision of a progressive and populist-oriented labor coalition, not as a modern innovation, but as a return to labor’s roots. In an in-depth interview for The Zero Hour, Trumka...
by Bill Scher | Jun 16, 2014 | Uncategorized
Wealthy Hiding Nearly $8 Trillion $7.6 trillion of global wealth hidden in tax havens. NYT: "[Economist Gabriel] Zucman estimates — conservatively, in his view — that $7.6 trillion — 8 percent of the world’s personal financial wealth — is stashed in tax havens. If all...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 16, 2014 | Blog, Economy
In the first six months of this year, Senate Republicans used the filibuster to block the Senate majority from increasing the minimum wage, providing paycheck fairness to women, and enabling those with student debt to refinance at lower rates, paid for by insuring...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 13, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
As House Minority Leader Eric Cantor exits stage right, it seems appropriate to recall some of his most memorable wingnut moments. And as David Bratt waits in the wings, it’s a good a time as any to consider that nights of wingnuttia he’s likely to reach. When Eric...
by Emily Schwartz Greco | Jun 13, 2014 | Trade
By Emily Schwartz Greco and William A. Collins President Barack Obama is a surprisingly devout disciple of so-called “free trade.” During his first presidential bid he promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), indicating some concern...
by Joshua Holland | Jun 13, 2014 | Climate
There is nothing controversial about the work of climatologist Michael Mann, director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center. His innovative research helped recreate the Earth’s historical temperature record and separate the noise of natural weather fluctuations...
by Bill Scher | Jun 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
Cantor Fallout May Hit Economy Cantor's loss may give Tea Party more influence over economic policy, suggests WSJ: "...Cantor was one of fewer than 30 House Republicans who voted in February to suspend the debt ceiling until 2015 ... Cantor’s likely successor, Rep....
by Thom Hartmann | Jun 13, 2014 | Conservatism
Dave Brat wants to bring libertarian economics to the U.S., and double-down on 33 miserable years of Reaganomics. Yesterday, fresh off his primary upset of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the Tea Partying Brat was interviewed by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. Todd asked the...
by Bill Scher | Jun 12, 2014 | Blog
In 2007, six coal miners were trapped, never to be found, in Utah's Crandall Canyon mine. On the day after the mine initially collapsed, the mine owner, Robert Murray of Murray Energy, began a press conference not with the plans for finding his employees, but with...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 12, 2014 | Blog
This week Democrats added 23 new bills to the comprehensive Make It In America plan. These new bills are not like the usual Republican "giving tax cuts to rich people fixes everything" nonsense. These bills contain real substance, and represent a great deal of hard...
by Robin Claremont | Jun 12, 2014 | Blog
By Robin Claremont and Jasmine Tucker Earlier this week, President Obama signed an executive order that will allow more student borrowers to become eligible for a program that caps monthly payments based on their income. This would especially help out recent grads who...
by Bill Scher | Jun 12, 2014 | Uncategorized
Advocates Push Immigration Reform In Primary Aftermath Cantor, Graham primaries "scramble" immigration landscape for Republicans, says Politico: "...Cantor’s loss Tuesday night proved how difficult a messaging challenge the issue will be for any 2016 candidate who...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 12, 2014 | Blog, Education
Anyone who remembers the spectacle of the Obama administration's maneuvering on the Grand Bargain for solving the nation's financial problems should feel in familiar territory watching how the current controversy over the Common Core State Standards is playing out....
by Dave Johnson | Jun 12, 2014 | Blog, Education
If you are crushed by student loan debt at a rate of 6 or 7 percent, maybe even higher, you would want to know who to hold accountable for killing the bill to let you refinance at a lower rate. That's how democracy is supposed to work. So did our nation's news media...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 12, 2014 | Blog, Populist Majority, The New Populism
Twenty-four hours have now passed since House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's surprise primary defeat. Oceans of pixelated ink have already been spilled interpreting its meaning. Cantor's defeat has certainly put an end to the conventional wisdom that "establishment...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 11, 2014 | Unemployment Benefits
More than 3 million hardworking Americans have lost their emergency unemployment benefits, since House Republicans allowed the program to expire. Witness Wednesdays is bringing some of those voices to Washington. Will the GOP listen? Activists and members of Congress...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 11, 2014 | Blog
Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) issued an appeal Tuesday to President Obama to crack down on currency manipulation, which has cost 5.8 million U.S. jobs and increased the federal budget deficit by $266 billion. They also asked the president...
by Derek Pugh | Jun 11, 2014 | Education
Senate Republicans today sided with 22,000 millionaires over 40 million Americans with student debt by blocking the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. The 56-38 vote fell shy of the 60 needed to prevent the bill, sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren...
