Working Life

   If we wonder why the average person thinks government is dysfunctional and too often doesn’t speak for the average person, here is another example (courtesy of The Wall Street Journal): The top regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is expected to announce millions of dollars in pay packages for top executives at the […]

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One of the biggest challenges that we face as a country is not that we lack money or wealth–we have plenty of money. Rather, we have a distorted set of priorities and an ideological frame that walls off many possibilities to create a decent society. For example: the belief in the so-called "free market" that […]

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   This is not a new phenomena but it must be underscored: unemployment hits blacks, especially men, much harder than the rest of the population, as the Fiscal Policy Institute found is the case in New York City: The FPI report found that the citywide unemployment rate in the third quarter was 15.7 percent for […]

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   Last week, I pointed out that the Senate health care bill was bad for many reasons including the provision that would actually encourages companies to hire people for less money. Seems like that was what people thought would fit right into the current trend sweeping the country: The hiring of temporary workers has surged, […]

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There are lots of reasons to oppose the Senate bill in its current form, and hope that, if the Senate does pass a bill, that the final form of the bill is closer to the House version (I am leaving aside for the moment the argument, pro or con, that anything short of "Medicare For […]

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   There is a poll out today that shows the fortune of the Democratic Party sliding dramatically. I am not a big believer that polls tell you much beyond a monetary snapshot–and we know how quickly those polls can change. But, this was the more interesting–and worrisome, from the party’s point of view: Julie Edwards, […]

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   The French should be thrilled that the Republicans do not control the Congress because we would certainly see another landmark "Freedom Fries" bill become law after this: French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Wednesday that France will slap a one-off 50% tax on bonuses awarded to bank employees next year. "Banks will be taxed […]

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   To understand how out of touch some of the people at the helm of large businesses are, consider the following contrast today. First, the nation’s ranks of unemployed–which have been swelled by the irresponsible behavior of, if I may quote the president, "fat-cat bankers"–are in dire straights: More than half of the nation’s unemployed […]

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   The drumbeat about the long-term debt is continuing. But, we are not having a serious debate about the origins of the debt or its solutions. If you want to address the long-term debt, the only solution is a "Medicare For All" system that kills the private health insurance industry.   The newest alarm is […]

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   I will have a lot more to say next week about the whole executive compensation issue and how it fits into the larger picture of our economy. But, for today, I think we should not get too excited about this news: Bowing to calls for restraint in tough economic times, Goldman said that its […]

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