Working Life

   A long battle has taken one step forward to victory:   The Stella D’Oro Biscuit Company factory in the Bronx, where 134 workers on strike since last August have been replaced, must reinstate the workers and pay them wages going back to May, a federal administrative law judge has ruled. The 134 workers, members […]

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   A few days ago, I wrote about the coming crisis of retirement that could last for decades. Here’s another example: And even as its pension fund faces this giant bulge in payouts, G.M. is not putting any new money in — the company is not required to make any contributions to the fund until […]

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   I can’t help but laugh at the transparent crap passed around by the protectors of the financial kingdom. In a column in today’s Wall Street Journal, Roger Altman writes under the headline, "We’ll Need To Raise Taxes Soon". Altman’s tagline for his bio reads: "founder and chairman of Evercore Partners, was deputy secretary of […]

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   Last week, I wrote about the energy bill and passages that impose penalties on countries that violate the bill. The president thinks this is "protectionism": “At a time when the economy worldwide is still deep in recession and we’ve seen a significant drop in global trade,” Mr. Obama said, “I think we have to […]

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   Trade and climate change are closely connected issues. Think just about the carbon emissions of planes and ships traversing the globe carrying stuff that we consume. I’ll come back to that in a sec.    Yesterday, Rep. Mike Michaud of Maine introduced the House version of the TRADE Act; the Senate’s sponsor is Sherrod […]

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I have argued that the current crisis we are in now is the product of at least three decades of a bankrupt economic system. Now, looking forward, the same system has set the stages, according to a report just out, for a massive worldwide crisis in retirement security that will last decades. The reason we […]

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   Yesterday, I was back doing the hard stuff…not in the drinking area (though, actually, I did have a bit of Glenlivet later in the day). No, the hard stuff is trying to have an intelligent conversation with anyone associated with the so-called "free trade" wing of the world. In this case, I was asked […]

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Check out this video about HAARM Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine, featuring stars like Glenn Beck, Rick Scott and Zach Wamp. The video is the love child of SEIU and Living Liberally. I wrote this one, so I like to think of myself as the DNA. Or RNA.  

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The other day, I saw an amazing spectacle: a firefighter responded to a call to a burning building in New York City and, as he was dragging the fire hose to the fire, a crowd of angry people stopped him and said, "Stop. Your pension is too generous so don’t you dare put that fire […]

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   i’ve never liked the nonsense about the importance of the political "center". As I see it, that has basically been a cop-out–a fear of confronting the people who want to continue to rip-off the workers of the country by promoting the notion that the "center" requires that taxes be low (meaning, taxes on the […]

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