Working Life

   I think that we all share the notion that democracy is an important aspect of living in a functioning society. The problem is that the one place where we spend half our waking lives–the workplace–does not have people running the show who adhere to the notion of democracy. To wit (via The Wall Street […]

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   Let’s see where this goes: That’s the second big win for Ken Howard this week. Members of the Screen Actors Guild have elected the veteran character actor, who just won won an Emmy on Sunday for his role in HBO’s "Grey Gardens," as the union’s new president, capping a bitter election campaign that sharply […]

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   It’s beginning: House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) told lawmakers the plan would no longer require banks to offer customers "plain vanilla" versions of products such as mortgages and credit cards, one of the more populist components of the White House’s proposal that had become a lightening rod of criticism from […]

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   We would all agree that we want a "healthy" economy. But, what constitutes healthy? It certainly isn’t the economy we have today, where hundreds of millions of people around the globe struggle to survive, even in "good times" when government statistics tell us we should be thrilled and happy because the economy is "growing". […]

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A bit of a lateish post here today (I know, everyone is just crushed). I wandered down to Wall Street to see the new president of the AFL-CIO give one of his first–perhaps his first–public speech since taking over the federation last week. Here is Trumka on the left–to his left is Liz Schuler, the […]

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   The financial newspapers are buzzing with the news of a coalition of business leaders stepping forward to propose executive compensation limits. I think this is only a secondary issue. Don’t get me wrong–I think the greed that has swamped the country at the executive suite level is astonishing. And it should be dealt with. […]

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   The official news for New York City is grim: Continuing layoffs on Wall Street drove New York City’s unemployment rate to 10.3 percent in August, a 16-year high that underscores the need to retrain former financial services workers for other jobs, state officials said Thursday.    Note that I said the "official" news. Because, […]

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   This morning, in Pittsburgh (where yours truly is), everyone is awaiting the speech by John Wilhelm, president of Unite-Here who will announce that the union is re-affiliation with the AFL-CIO. This is probably the first step in the end of Change To Win–I’d guess the Laborers and the UFCW will be soon to follow […]

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   There is no other way to say it–Sen. Baucus’ bill is a travesty and an outrage. You want evidence? Here it is in this morning’s Wall Street Journal: Business groups that have opposed House versions of a health bill say they are warmer toward the version emerging from Sen. Max Baucus’s Finance Committee, which […]

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   It seems like much of the political leadership in the country wants to ignore the deep outrage still being felt across the country in the wake of the nonsense, greed and incompetence on Wall Street. Except one judge: Giving voice to the anger and frustration of many ordinary Americans, Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued […]

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