Working Life

August has been a busy month in NY’s housing world. Last Friday Governor Spitzer signed a few bills that will improve the state’s flawed 421-a program, which provides tax breaks to developers who build affordable housing. Also last week, the City Council committed $14 million to help preserve federally-assisted affordable housing developments that are distressed […]

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Yesterday’s New York Times has a piece on the environmental cost of economic growth in China titled As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes. The long, detailed piece focuses on the huge impact heavy industry has had on public health in China and the lack of government action or effective regulations to address these problems. […]

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With only one week of summer left, NYC’s teachers aren’t just preparing for school to start. They are also getting ready to see their union, the United Federation of Teachers, increase its membership by 20%. For the past few years, the UFT and ACORN have been organizing New York City’s home-based child care providers, of […]

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Note to reader: Natasha Winegar, Jonathan’s assistant, wrote this post. While Jonathan is away on vacation for the next week, I will be posting in his place. There has been quite a buzz on DailyKos the past few weeks about a new campaign to organize school bus workers. Progressive bloggers have often written about labor […]

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    No, I haven’t turned this into a sex advice column (hmmm…maybe the readership would skyrocket? Memo to NW–put on "to consider" list). From way back during the fight over NAFTA, there was an interesting–and, for some, uncomfortable–alliance between "left" and "right." The "left" saw NAFTA as a disaster for workers and the environment, whereas […]

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    So, if you’re wondering why some pundits and analysts are starting to worry that consumers may be thinking about pulling back from opening up their wallets, you can take the two obvious reasons–none of which are surprising to anyone with their eye on real people, as opposed to Wall Street hype and free market […]

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The scam is going to get worse in the housing market. I mean the scam that will let the predators and hucksters, who lured people into bad deals, off the hook, either via Congressional bailouts or actions by the Federal Reserve. And the outcry has to build now so that we don’t let, once again […]

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    I was struck today by two trends underway that are, on the one hand, not connected but, in another way, are connected because they paint a picture of what government can do and what it shouldn’t do.     On the one hand, take this story from the Associated Press, printed as a brief in […]

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    It’s a fascinating spectacle reading the news reports about Mattel’s recall of 19 million toys sent from China. Most of the reports and editorials focus, rightly, on the low level of safety standards in China. But, it’s foolish to simply blame the Chinese for the lead in toys. The fact is that those dangers […]

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    Recently, including yesterday, I’ve been on the case of Sen. Chuck Schumer who seemed to be coddling the private equity and hedge fund industry by opposing legislation that would require that these guys–who are raking in obscene profits–pay taxes like the rest…of the rich people in America (yeah, hard to cry for them, either). […]

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