Working Life

   I’ll be in route this morning and here and there so just a quick post. If the health care bill comes out without a pubic option, will progressive members of Congress vote "no"? Interesting question: In the House, liberal lawmakers have adopted a strategy of countering almost every statement against a public option with […]

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   It is an article of faith that American consumers are way over leveraged, particularly when it comes to credit card debt. But, a pretty scary article in the Financial Times the other day makes it clear that this is a worldwide phenomena that is likely to prolong the economic crisis we are in. I […]

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   I remember quite clearly a very honest discussion I had with a Member of Congress at an event about six months before the 2008 mid-term elections. I’ve known this person for a few years and I remarked that it looked like the Democratic Party was poised to make significant gains in the House in […]

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Today, the minimum wage rises to $7.25 an hour. We should all be glad that millions of people are going to get a bit more money in their pockets. But, this hike masks a very grim fact: the “recovery” is not going to happen anytime soon, if the measure we use for “recovery” is that […]

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   On some things, I would rather be proven wrong. I would rather be told, "you see, these trade deals did their job when they passed and promised  to protect labor rights in other countries where union organizers and leaders have been regularly killed and threatened…life has so improved for labor". Then, I would admit […]

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I fear for our country. Medicare has been one of the most successful programs in the history of our country. But, there is apparently a push to "curb the cost" (read: cut) Medicare, even though there is plenty of money to keep it robust–if our political leaders stop trying to appease the wrong people.   […]

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   I’m getting increasingly pissed off about the debate about health care, and the larger obscenity that our states are collapsing, services are being cut, millions of people are losing jobs–and the richest Americans just can’t step out and say, "yes, we should pay more to have a decent society". If you want to see […]

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   I’ve always wanted to go out and do a week-long series on how the labor movement built the middle-class in Las Vegas–you know, the labor movement that part of the Democratic Party just sold out by eviscerating the Employee Free Choice Act. So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I began reading […]

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   I have had my doubts, as expressed here over these many months, about the Employee Free Choice Act–whether it would do what the labor movement said it would do (unleash organizing of millions of workers) and, most important, whether it would pass in its proposed form.    Well, you can forget about the latter […]

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   One of the enduring myths of Washington insider language is the need for the Federal Reserve Board to be "independent". This is utter nonsense and is, to a great extent, the reason our economy has collapsed–not just over the past year but over the past 30 years as it has failed to translate the […]

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