by Mary Bottari | Jan 19, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
Two years after a catastrophic financial collapse and six months after the passage of a Wall Street reform bill, astonishing tales of volatility in the market are all too common. If you think inexplicable flash crashes are worrisome, brace yourself for the next big...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 18, 2011 | Blog, Economy
What is it about jobs that is hard to get? The new Republican congressional majority is railing about repealing health care and cutting spending. The president is wooing business and bankers. The punditry is focused on austerity and deficit reduction. But, as a...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 18, 2011 | Blog
Mr. President, you moved a nation today with your words in Tucson. "Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame," you said, "let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 18, 2011 | Blog, Economy
There isn't much cause for gloating in today's unemployment report, with the number of jobs created during December—103,000—being lower than most analysts expected. But, more critically, we're not even treading water on creating a sufficient number of "breadwinning...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 18, 2011 | Blog
Polls consistently find that the vast majority of Americans oppose cutting Social Security, whether they're progressives or Tea Partiers or anything in between. And most real experts agree it's not necessary. We're supposed to have a government "of the people, by the...
by | Jan 18, 2011 | Blog
Mike Konczal at Rortybomb makes an excellent observation in his post responding to Jonathan Bernsteins' query to liberals about what disappointed/surprised them the most about the Obama administration (which I answered here.) Konczal writes: I expected Obama to be a...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 18, 2011 | Blog, Economy
As Paul Krugman aptly summarizes, “recovery” is today's fool’s gold. Good news about the economy—higher holiday sales, lower unemployment filings—feeds a truly dangerous Beltway conventional wisdom: “We’re in recovery; now it is time to tighten our belts, cut...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 18, 2011 | Blog
The Senate is considering reforming the rules for filibusters. In the last few years the filibuster has been used so frequently that it is now conventional wisdom that "it takes 60 votes to pass a bill in the Senate." This is because the public, and apparently even...
by Bill Scher | Jan 18, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Obama, Listen To...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 17, 2011 | Blog
When Martin Luther King Jr. gave the sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington on March 31, 1968 to highlight the Poor People's Campaign he was organizing for later that spring, unemployment was hovering just under 7 percent—for African Americans. The nationwide...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jan 16, 2011 | Blog
New governors in New York and California seem hell-bent on delivering a knockout blow to America's most historic social contribution, the mass middle class. A bit over a half century ago, in the years right after World War II, the United States delivered up onto the...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 15, 2011 | Blog
Watch as GOP Rep. Jim Renacci (OH) is confronted at a local town hall meeting, asked what the heck he thinks he is doing saying he will vote to repeal the health care reform law. Renacci replies that he and fellow Republicans campaigned on reversing the "half a...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 15, 2011 | Blog
Note: See also Isaiah Poole's We Need An Unemployed People's Campaign Why don't we all have a right to a job? Who is our country and our economy for? The first three words of our Constitution provide us with a hint: "We, the People." There are millions of people out...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 14, 2011 | Blog
In an open letter to the President this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders mentioned "worriesome reports" that the President is planning to cut Social Security. These reports don't come out of the blue. They're the culmination of a months-long campaign. The White House has...
by Bill Scher | Jan 14, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: We Need An...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 14, 2011 | Blog
Central to the Tea Party revolt was a fierce reaction against the bailout of the big banks. Will the Republican Congress now spit that sentiment in the eye and push through another bailout, this time by overturning centuries of property law and nationalizing what has...
by Mary Bottari | Jan 14, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is promising to unleash a cache of secret documents from the hard drive of a U.S. megabank executive. In 2009, he told Computer World that the bank was Bank of America (BofA). In 2010, he told Forbes that the information was...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog, Making it in America
Good news: Trade Deficit in U.S. Unexpectedly Narrows to 10-Month Low The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly shrank in November as growing global demand and a weaker dollar help boost overseas sales of everything from aircraft to cotton. The gap shrank 0.3 percent to...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog
Everyone either wondered what the President would say, or knew what he should say at the memorial for the victims of the shooting in Tucson. Now we know what he did say. It may be the finest speech he's given as president, thus far. He spoke not merely as the...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog
It begins with a moment of silence. "Poetry is about the grief," said Robert Frost. "Politics is about the grievance." This is a time of grief, not grievance. This morning I assembled a litany of criticisms about what might have led up to yesterday's events, but I...
by | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog, Making it in America
President Obama delivered just the right speech in Tucson. Can he replicate that performance for his State of the Union address on January 25? For the sake of our nation’s economic well-being, he must. Just as our national psyche needed some healing this week, our...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog, Economy
In the aftermath of the tragic Tucson, AZ, shooting that left six dead, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D, AZ-8) hospitalized, much has been said and written about the degree to which incendiary rhetoric motivated the shooter. However, caustic rhetoric isn't the real...
by Roger Hickey | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog
[Note: The following column was rejected by The Washington Post after two of its regular columnists had done similar op-eds calling for President Obama to cut Social Security and Medicare. There was a time when op-ed pages were used by newspapers (at least those...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog
The D.C. elite insist that the retirement age should be raised even more than the current 67. They have jobs where they sit in nice chairs behind nice desks in nice offices in affluent areas. They don't even know anyone who waits tables or cleans or lifts boxes all...
by | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog
One of the persistent myths about Social Security is that benefit cuts could be done in a way that would only affect the richest Americans. So let us clarify the issue for those who are confused. Cuts that would have any meaningful impact on Social Security’s finances...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog
The Senate is considering changing the rules for the "filibuster" and this is an opportunity for you to do something that can make a difference. The filibuster has been abused and the Senate is broken. Call your Senators and tell them you want this fixed! "Abuse" does...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog
Thank you, Mr. President.. You can watch the President's speech at the memorial in Tuscon here: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
by | Jan 13, 2011 | Blog
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s appearance on Meet the Press this Sunday was a rare positive moment in a very bad couple of months for Social Security advocates. Reid, who is not known for his gifted oratory, gave the most cogent rebuttal of calls to cut Social...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 13, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Mr. President,...
by Bill Scher | Jan 12, 2011 | Blog
It's increasingly clear that Republican leaders are bluffing when they threaten to destroy the full faith and credit of the American government by allowing the debt ceiling to be shattered unless draconian budget cuts are made. And a clear bluff is a bad bluff. There...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 12, 2011 | Blog
I appeared last week on the Bill Meyer Show, a talk radio program in Medford, OR. It was a very useful debate, since Bill (and one or two callers) used all the standard talking points for cutting Social Security: it's bankrupt, it's only IOUs, there are...
by Leo Gerard | Jan 12, 2011 | Blog
Five years ago, a 47-year-old Missouri woman began a duplicitous on-line courtship through MySpace with a 13-year-old neighbor who once had been friends with the woman’s daughter. The adult, Lori Drew, flirted with the 13-year-old, Megan Meier, through the guise of a...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 12, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
Music was Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's second career. News reports say he began dealing crack at the age of twelve, after the murder of his coke-dealer mother. Early tracks like "Ghetto Quran" and "How to Rob" reflect a brutal, street-hustling life, and Jackson has the...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 12, 2011 | Blog, Minimum Wage
How does America dig out of the hole we are in? Surely the focus must be on first principles: how do we recreate an economy that works for working people? With the right talking about a return to the principles of the Constitution, it is worth remembering how...
by Bill Scher | Jan 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Not Just Rhetoric,...
by Bill Scher | Jan 11, 2011 | Blog
As Republicans prepared to take over the House, they announced one of their first bills would be the repeal of health reform because "that's what the American people want." If that's true, and repealing health reform is simply a sound policy decision called upon by...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 11, 2011 | Blog
Since the 80s many employers have stopped offering health care, pensions and other benefits to their employees. Many are also cutting pay and hours, while increasing the workload. So more and more people are hurting. As more and more of us fall further and further...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 11, 2011 | Blog
I came across this great, short video from the PA AFL-CIO titled A Brief History Of Unions: Well this got me "sucked into YouTube" as my wife and I call it... and I came across a few other interesting short videos: Labor History Part I Labor History Part II Labor...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 11, 2011 | Blog
Simon Johnson, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is a principled conservative who understands how financial oligopolies can loot a nation. He's been warning about the inadequacy of financial reforms in relation to the big banks. In a...
by Bill Scher | Jan 11, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Pension Envy...
