Working Life

Let’s be cautious about the jobs report. And what lies ahead.

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I’ve always avoided those self-checkout machines because those machines basically cost people their jobs — and it always distresses me that those people who still have jobs in those retail stores encourage people to use the self-checkout lines without perhaps realizing what might happen to their job as a result. And now comes the other job killer: phone apps.

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Job growth is allegedly “steady” but unemployment increases — so said the statistics. But, here’s the thing — these stats still miss an important point.

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It’s not surprising that a growing number of workers around the globe are losing faith in political leaders. After all, the economic debate often seems completely divorced from the realities of workers’ lives, whether it’s blaming workers for national budget squeezes actually caused by bankers or CEOs imposing mass layoffs to cover up obscene executive compensation at the heart of bottom-line revenue shortfalls. The debate in the United States is a good example.

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     So, it’s not all bad news in the world. Some sanity prevails when real-life economics, not blather about the glories of the "free market", triumphs and one can hope for a bit of truthiness to spread.    First, the good news: President François Hollande’s Socialists and their allies won an absolute majority in runoff [...]

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   A few months ago, I spent 5-6 hours interviewing Paul Krugman for Playboy magazine. It’s now on-line here. He speaks candidly–surprise–about the economic misdeeds of Wall Street, the foolishness of the current austerity obsession and focus on the non-existent debt crisis, and a whole range of topics including his view that the Obama Administration [...]

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   Politicians bickering over private equity’s impact on jobs and how to bring down the high unemployment rate are entirely missing the point about the crisis facing working Americans. The predicament we face isn’t simply that there are too few jobs; it’s also that an increasing number of workers don’t have the kind of job [...]

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   I’ve written a lot about the complete immoral insanity of the obsession over the phony debt and deficit "crisis"and the rush to impose austerity on the people when we really need much more public spending to employ the masses of people who are falling, falling, falling further behind. Well, truth is austerity is not [...]

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    You may join me in the celebration of failure–a celebration I have been urging we look forward to for a very long time. Do not listen to the hand-wringing and whining about the implosion of the Catfood Commission II. This is a great thing. It is fabulous.    BUT…    Let us also pause, [...]

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   One of the things I’ve said, only half-jokingly, to a bunch of radio stations and in numerous posts (including just a couple of days ago) is that I am not a religious person but I get down on my hands and knees every day and pray, pray, pray that the Catfood Commission II fails [...]

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   Paul Krugman wasn’t actually writing directly to the Catfood Commission II (speaking for myself, I decline to use a superlative being used by many to describe the Congressional fool’s gathering because the superlative implies higher quality). But, his message, looking at the debacle in Europe, is very clear: austerity is a loser.    In [...]

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    You want a reason for the uprisings in Greece, where workers are on strike to protest the brutal austerity measures, or OccupyWallStreet or the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia fanned by the deep unemployment? Or are you looking for a reason people don’t believe the economy is getting better even when "growth" seems to [...]

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That CEOs of American-based, flagless corporations will say, or do, anything to make a buck–and line their own pockets–is not a surprising notion. That our political leadership keeps buying the nonsense spewed out by the Chamber of Commerce and the other megaphones of corporate greed is a tragedy–an obvious result of the corrupt campaign finance [...]

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    There is an incredible easy equation to make–both morally and financially. The one percent broke it now they need to fix it. And it all adds up, according to the Congressional Budget Office.   The math: The Democrats’ proposed tax on millionaires would raise an estimated $453 billion, more than enough to pay for [...]

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   Sure, for humor, I turn to listen to Jon Stewart and Colbert. But, really, if you want the funniest laughs you have to mix in Republican leadership talking points. Seriously. Ah, yes, the "class warfare" inherent in Harry Reid’s proposal to apply a 5 percent surtax on millionaires. Except it isn’t so–not surprisingly–as the [...]

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   Greeks have taken a big part of the brunt in Europe because of the preying on its country by banks and international institutions. Essentially, the failed strategy has been all about AUSTERITY: shrink the economy even more in return for not…plunging the economy even deeper.    The people in Greece have had enough–and they’ve [...]

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