Working Life

   Yours truly will be headed today early down to D.C.–I hear something is happening there, what it is isn’t exactly clear, there’s a man…well, you get the pic…    But, yesterday, there was this to ponder: Congress approved the $700 billion rescue plan with the idea that banks would help struggling borrowers and increase […]

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   One of the reasons to get the stimulus package through Congress very fast–without tax cuts, I might add–is this, from The Wall Street Journal: U.S. consumer prices barely rose last year by their slowest pace in over a half century, a government report showed, a stunning turn just a few months after inflation hit […]

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The traditional press has ample capacity to obsess about stupid things but very little capacity to dig deep (yes, I know, I’m stating the obvious). Today’s example: Timothy Geithner. Yes, the guy messed up and, I’m going to take his word for it, forgot to pay some social security taxes. But, the real question is: […]

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   I guess i’m partly interested in the on-going saga at the Screen Actors Guild because I consider it my industry. And, as important, what happens to the power of creators in the increasingly digital information world does mean something to organized labor. You may remember that there has been a lot of turmoil at […]

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   Ah, yes, another chapter in the saga of the great financial guru, Robert Rubin–you know, the guy who the entire political and media establishment fawned over for almost two decades as the all-knowing, all-seeing, wise man of the global financial world…until, of course, the entire financial house of cards collapsed in large part because […]

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Could RNC chair candidate Chip Saltsman be a ‘chip’ off the old block of former Georgia Senator George Allen? These two Southerners share a striking resemblance and a gift for race-based humor. But could they also share genes? Or alleles, at the very least?

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I’ve been pretty clear that we should be significantly raising the taxes on the richest Americans–much higher than the top rates that were in place during the Clinton Administration, which is where the president-elect believes they should go. But, I’m happy at least to see some lines being drawn on estate taxes.   The Wall […]

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  Back in November, I asked the question: is Robert Rubin a liar or a coward or both? Today, in what should be a welcome sight to every working American, Rubin is effectively being run out of Citigroup, his reputation sullied. And, yet, he continues to obfuscate his role in the financial crisis we face. […]

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  Yesterday, Tom Daschle testified in his confirmation hearing for secretary of health and human services. He promised "bi-partisanship", pledging "I really want to work in a collaborative way. It’s the only way we’re going to get this done." Which made me think: if that is the path we take, millions of Americans will be […]

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Maybe you feel, on days like this, the same way I do–that you live in an alternate universe. In my alternate universe, I wouldn’t consider cutting education, health care, or aid to the poor before asking the richest people in our society to pay their fair share in dues. In my alternate universe, I would […]

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