Working Life

If you wanted any more information about the rise of China as the world’s global economic power of the next century, today’s Wall Street Journal reports: “China’s trade volume was $1.1 trillion in 2004, state media reported, up from $850 billion the previous year. The record annual trading volume, the sum of China’s exports and […]

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You remember the Administration’s Iraq “Coalition of the Willing,” which was a sham from the start, including such important military powers as Poland. It was a title for a coalition with no real meaning. Labor has its version. Just picked up the AFL-CIO magazine, which notes, as has been noted elsewhere in labor’s propoganda, that […]

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James Brooke has a piece today on the devastation facing Mongolia when the worldwide quotas on apparel end Jan 1 2005. I’ve previously mulled this over here and here. What struck me with this piece was the observation that Brooke says that the end of the quotas would save American consumers $6 billion a year. […]

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It’s bad enough that Wal-Mart is everywhere in the economy: largest importer of goods from China; driving other companies like Toys-R-Us to the verge of bankruptcy by driving prices down, down, down, chirping on the television with those misleading ads talking about the Wal-Mart paradise for communities and workers; and, of course, paying workers poverty […]

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So, I got into a little debate with a few people on one of the sites promoting “Democratic-friendly” companies. Their legitimate campaign goes something like this: we’re going to put our consumer dollars only into companies that support Democrats, based on data on campaign contributions. I think there’s a problem with that strategy on at […]

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I had to read Keith Bradesher’s Dec. 14th front-page piece on Bangladesh several times to get over how bizarre it was. Don’t worry, Bradesher says, Bangladesh will be fine when the world’s apparel industry shifts massively towards China–think of the Earth as a table and tilting it slightly towards China and watching everything slide from […]

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Took some time off here because of a project that had to be done. But came back to realize that we are just days away from the biggest shift in jobs in the shortest amount of time in history: 30 million jobs. On January 1, 2005, after 40 years, worldwide quotas will end on apparel. […]

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I’m just re-listening to Steve Earle’s “The Revolution Starts Now.” Struck me again how this has to be one of the top most political albums in some time. With lines like, “Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war” (“Rich Man’s War”), the entire album is a sharp, passionate political cry. My […]

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Hard to believe that Wal-Mart has agreed to accept unions in China, no? And, yes, hold the applause. It’s still not clear what this means because the All China Federation of Trade Unions is really an official government-run union. On the other hand, my sources says that, with such a vast union apparatus, you can […]

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Business Week’s cover story this week is about America’s top philanthropists. Since I figured I’m personally a cause they could consider giving to, I figured I’d read it. Interesting two facts: of the 50 most generous philanthropists, the Wal-Mart family ranks tenth *but* what they have given accounts for just 1 percent of their net […]

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