Working Life

If you share the belief that the greatest economic challenge we face is stopping the stupefying global class warfare underway, then, we have to be quite clear about the tools that support the attack against decent living standards for people and a fair sharing of the wealth. So-called "free trade" is right up there on […]

Read the full story

   This should be an amusing sideshow: In the speech, Camp will describe Obama as a recent and largely disingenuous convert to a pro-trade agenda, according to excerpts of his remarks reviewed by POLITICO. “Under the Democrats’ control, we did not hold a single hearing on our pending trade agreements since they were signed three […]

Read the full story

   Yours truly is on the road for the next couple of days so short and sweet is the theme. Someone is getting a raise: Volkswagen employees agreed to a wage deal Tuesday that ensures them a larger share of soaring profits in the German auto industry, and may signal an end to a decade […]

Read the full story

   It’s official. The president’s stroll to the Chamber of Commerce marks the handing over of the keys to the future of the middle class to the business world (not to mention the complete airbrushing out of the entire economic picture anyone considered poor). And it really has happened with not much struggle.   For […]

Read the full story

   As we shuffle–or maybe that’s scuffle–into the weekend, a small ray of good news: The government will grant collective bargaining rights to the nation’s 40,000 airport screeners, the head of the largest federal workers union said Friday. John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told the Associated Press he was informed […]

Read the full story

Yes, to get back to some sane, healthy economic strategy we have to confront the Wall Street/Robert Rubins of the world, the corruption of the electoral system and a whole set of adversaries. But, I would put at the top of the list the false framing of the choices before us as a nation, and […]

Read the full story

   Thanks a lot and here’s to labor solidarity: As fans and foes of Walmart geared up for a City Council hearing Thursday, the retail giant cut a deal with the powerful construction unions to build its city stores. The agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council to use union labor gives Walmart a boost […]

Read the full story

Sometimes, I wonder whether we all live in a grand farce. But, actually, it’s a real-life story about a robbery of the people that continues every day–and today is no different. The robbers grow richer.   From The Wall Street Journal a story headlined: "On Street, Pay Vaults to Record Altitude": When it comes to […]

Read the full story

If Jeffrey Immelt, the White House’s just-appointed head of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, has anything to say about corporate taxes, you can bet the message will be simple: corporations should pay lower taxes. How do we know that? Because in his job, as CEO of General Electric, he excelled at fleecing the […]

Read the full story

   Well, who said you can’t count on stability anymore? That things are changing too rapidly. Not to worry:    It was a tough year for Bank of America what with the foreclosure mess and a sagging stock price. Its chief executive, Brian T. Moynihan, nonetheless received $10 million in his first year on the […]

Read the full story