by Dave Johnson | Dec 13, 2011 | Blog, Making it in America
President Obama has appointed Commerce Secretary John Bryson and National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling to co-chair a new White House Office of Manufacturing Policy. The new Office of Manufacturing Policy will have cabinet-level status, reflecting the...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 13, 2011 | Blog
Last week Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) and Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) introduced The U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill to both help fight the offshoring of call-center jobs and protect consumers. This proposed legislation would let...
by Leo Gerard | Dec 13, 2011 | Blog
It wasn’t so much a vote as a proclamation of ideology last Thursday when Republicans filibustered Obama’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The rebuff had nothing to do with the person, Richard Cordary, who even Republican Senator Orrin Hatch...
by | Dec 13, 2011 | Blog
If you want to get a good look at the disconnect between the governing and financial elites and the rest of the country take a look at this: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median annual household income in the United States is roughly $50,000 per year. The...
by Alan Jenkins | Dec 13, 2011 | Blog
Like millions of American men, my Christmas list includes a bunch of power tools and do-it-yourself gadgets. (I’ve been hinting to my wife for weeks that the power sander on sale at our local hardware store would, actually, benefit the whole family). But our Christmas...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 13, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. Bill Scher returns Wednesday....
by Sam Pizzigati | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog, Economy
Financial industry insiders are grousing about a big downturn in annual bonuses. They should be thanking the rest of us — bombshell new research shows — for their continuing awesome good tidings. Wall Street’s power suits aren’t humming along, this December, with all...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog
Rick Perry's latest "oops" moments are this Monday's low-hanging fruit for bloggers, and by now it's low-hanging fruit that's seems thoroughly picked over. Looking back over the Republican campaign thus far, littered with what's left of a bushel of front-runners whose...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog
Lately we've been hearing some strong words from President Obama about Wall Street crime. But when the cameras and lights aren't around, his administration's been working feverishly to protect bankers from state law enforcement officials. There are conscientious state...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog, Minimum Wage
Today thousands of unemployed people and others came to D.C. to tell Congress and "K Street" that they need jobs not cuts; that we should tax the rich, and that unemployment benefits must be extended before they run out at the end of the year. I am in Washington to...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog
It was a dismal, rainy day in Washington, but the soaking that several hundred activists got today in the heart of the K Street financial and lobbying district in downtown Washington was nothing compared to the soaking that they and the rest of the "99 percent" have...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog
I am in DC covering the Take Back the Capitol "99 in DC" events. On Tuesday I wrote about the efforts of unemployed people and others to get in to talk to their senators and representatives. (Watch some of them tell their stories.) On Wednesday they marched to “K...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog
Last week’s Take Back the Capitol action brought two or three thousand unemployed people to the capitol. These representatives of the 99% went to the offices of 99 Senators and Representatives who now represent the 1%, where they were ignored and doors were closed on...
by admin | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog
James Fallows: Before the episode recedes fully from the news, please read this item, by Jonathan Cohn on Thursday evening, about the extraordinary step the Senate Republicans took that day. Cohn says that the Republican minority's success in blocking a vote on...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. Bill Scher returns Wednesday....
by Richard Eskow | Dec 11, 2011 | Blog
(If the video doesn't appear on your browser, it's available here) Was on Current TV's The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur the other day, appearing with the crew and participating in a "Power Panel" discussion with Glenn Greenwald and Paul Waldman. The...
by Sam Pizzigati | Dec 11, 2011 | Blog, Economy
One puts on football pageants. Another makes millions on a virtual farm. From Too Much, the Institute for Policy Studies inequality weekly, we present the year's ten most avaricious. All ten remind us just how much needs to change, economically and politically, in...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 9, 2011 | Blog
Just in time for the holidays, conservatives are presenting their latest gift to America's political discourse. Not satisfied with having creating and popularizing climate change denialism, and not even inequality denialism, it looks like conservatives are applying...
by | Dec 9, 2011 | Blog
This would be funny if it weren't so sad in so many ways: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has proposed a series of changes in the congressional budget process. Don't get me wrong; the existing budget process not only is not perfect but is close to a...
by | Dec 9, 2011 | Blog
Rick Perry has famously said that if he is elected president all foreign aid will start at zero each year and be voted on individually on the merits, even including Israel (although he winked and nodded to his Armageddon warriors to make sure everyone knew he would...
by Bill Scher | Dec 9, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Now's The Time To...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 9, 2011 | Blog
Here are three things to consider: Nearly one American in six over the age of 65 lives in poverty. A newly progressivized Barack Obama is rocking the populist bandwagon from Osawatomie to the Oval Office. And the Republicans have started attacking Democrats on Social...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Republican Sen. Michael Enzi says it should be perfectly legal for a business to engage in employment discrimination against a person who is unemployed. Enzi, the Wyoming senator who is the ranking Republican on the Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, let...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
"Which side are you on?" That question, posed by Florence Reece in a pro-union song she wrote in 1931, echoes across the country today, in the form of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and demonstrations like Take Back the Capital this week. Millions of Americans...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Verizon has fired 40 workers who took part in the strike this summer, saying they engaged in misconduct. Union leaders say this is a "heavy-handed" negotiating tactic to push for concessions at the bargaining table. At the AFL-CIO Blog, Unions Fight Verizon’s Firings...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Yesterday on RT Television we discussed the latest poverty figures, the increasingly visible camps of homeless people, and the nationwide crackdown on the Occupy movement. How do we keep the pressure on Washington to address economic issues? What's next for the...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
No financial executives have gone to jail, despite an overwhelming body of evidence indicating that a group of organized "banker gangs" conducted a widespread Wall Street crime wave that made them rich and while throwing millions into poverty. The Justice Department's...
by Jeff Bryant | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog, Education
Normally, it would be apparent to all that Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich forgot the first rule of holes when he recently doubled-down on his proposal to solve the problem of poor urban schools by recruiting impoverished children into the janitorial...
by Bill Scher | Dec 8, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: 99% March On K...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
The reason you see so many cellphone stores and ads everywhere is because wireless is a very lucrative business. Wireless companies are pulling in billions and their executives are raking in the bucks. But they are also squeezing their workers, their customers and our...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Do you want a path out of this recession? Then help the Verizon workers by joining a picket line at your local Verizon store. (Click to learn how.) Verizon has billions in profits. They pay their executives huge salaries. But they are asking their workers and even...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Verizon is the example today of what is happening to all of our jobs, benefits and standard of living. Verizon is extremely profitable, making billions and billions. Verizon's executives are very, very well paid. Some make $50,000 a day. And Verizon is demanding that...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
They've got the money but we’ve got the numbers. The billionaires and the giant corporations are making a greed-grab for what's left of our standard of living, even our democracy. But history shows that We, the People can beat back this greed-grab of we get off our...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Companies that take away middle-class jobs should not be rewarded. Verizon's workers are asking people to buy or upgrade Verizon iPhones only when Verizon gives workers a fair deal and stops downgrading the middle class. On a call today Verizon's workers said that it...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Here is a practical application of the ideas and energy of #Occupy Wall Street. Verizon's workers are in a struggle against a giant corporation. They need your help leafleting at Verizon stores, reaching people to explain what is going on. Verizon is a huge, very...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Tomorrow (Friday) as many as 1,000 Verizon workers will march with Occupy Wall Street in a protest against Verizon corporate greed. Verizon's workers are engaged in "save the middle class" negotiations with the huge telecommunications company. Profitable Verizon is...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Thursday's National Day Of Action looks like it will be really big. People will be out doing things all over the country. There will be all kinds of events that say, "We are the 99%!" My favorite is people will be gathering in front of various decaying bridges, to...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2011 | Blog
Verizon needs to open a call center, which means a few new low-paying jobs. They get local governments bidding against each other, offering all kinds of tax breaks if only they'll bring those jobs there. Before the bidding war these jobs will be in the economy...
by | Dec 7, 2011 | Blog
This is an interesting post about a new study tracking the attitudes of people who have lost jobs in the Great Recession. You can click the link to get to the original data, but it's distilled nicely here, where the authors have divided the results into several...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 7, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
It seems ages ago (Doesn't it?) that progressives were pushing hard to get Elizabeth Warren appointed to head her brainchild, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We know how that worked out. Despite our best efforts, Warren didn't get the appointment and moved...
