Every so often, usually over the weekend, “Flotsam and Jetsam” will be a place to knock off various items that have collected over time that didn’t warrant an individual post or got rolled over for more urgent matters.

The Rich Are Really Like Us!!! At least so said a May 5th article in the Wall Street Journal. Turns out that the rich have also been borrowing like crazy to fund purchases and investments. Who is actually rich? Those with more than $5.9 million in net worth–they are the richest 1 percent of American households. And, in 2001, their debt rose to $346 billion, up from $50 billion in 1998.

Don’t worry, though, you’re not really like the rich. They’ve been piling on what is called “strategic debt,” meaning they’ve been putting money into high-risk hedge funds, stocks, other investments and, of course, toys like a second or third VACATION home, private jets, racehorses, a piece of art or a yacht. You’ve been using debt to pay your credit card bills, huge medical bills or buy a house that you actually live in full-time.

And here’s the most revealing number. According to a study by a senior economist at the Federal Reserve, the rich controlled 33 percent of the nation’s total wealth in 2001, but only had 6 percent of its debt. You? The nation’s bottom 90 percent (and hope I’m not insulting anyone by including them in that embarrassing category) controlled just 30 percent of the wealth but held 70 percent of the debt. Get it?

CAFTA: Spineless Dems Get Right, Plus A Cover-up? The Central American Free Trade Agreement, a so-called “free trade” agreement, may be on the rocks. The Financial Times reported (I didn’t see this elsewhere but maybe it slipped by) that the House New Democract Coalition, which is home to Democrats with no spine (that would be the Centrist, Republican-lite types who helped get the Dems into the minority in the first place), came out against CAFTA. The FT quotes California Dem (in name only) Ellen Tauscher, the coalition chair, saying that “Free trade cannot simply mean reducing barriers.” We are ardent supporters of free trade but this deal reduces our ability to enforce standards.”

When will these people understand that the problem isn’t the fig-leaf type labor standards that sarted with the bogus “side agreements” in NAFTA. The problem is that so-called “free trade” agreements are constructed on the foundation of rights for corporations, rights that create a world economic system based primarily on seeking the lowest wage possible.

And, as fas as I can tell, only Lou Dobbs carried any national mention of the report the Bush Administration tried to suppress on labor standards in Central America. According to Rep. Sander Levin’s press release on the matter, he “filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on May 26, 2004 that was denied by DOL. He filed an appeal of that decision on October 27, 2004. Unable to obtain a response, Rep. Levin announced on April 21st that he would introduce a Congressional Resolution of Inquiry to force the release of the taxpayer funded documents clearly relevant to the debate over the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). DOL suddenly delivered the reports to Mr. Levin’s office the next day.”

“These reports underscore that these countries do not have the basic legal framework in place to protect the basic rights of working people,” said Rep. Levin. “CAFTA says to these countries with woefully inadequate laws and practices – just “enforce your own laws.” This is a double standard not accepted in any other area of international trade, including CAFTA itself.”

Better Late Than Never Category: The New York Times has an article today on the AFL-CIO staff cuts and other events last week that were discussed at length here.

Coming This Week in Working Life: Will John Wilhelm Run? Which Union Might Be Shaky in the Sweeney Coalition? And a couple of proposals about the debate.