Working Life

  When many people voted for "change", they embraced the idea that the parameters and language of our policy debate had to be altered. Nowhere is that more evident than on the topic of trade. Now, there is legitimate concern that the president may not live up to his rhetoric when it comes to so-called […]

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   Today, the president will unveil his proposal to deal with the mortgage/housing crisis. At least from the initial reports, my first take is: it’s not enough. And that seems to be the general problem with the way in which the Administration is handling the economic collapse.    Things to consider: 1.4 trillion–that’s TRILLION–in household […]

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   Way back when the UAW negotiated with the Big Three in 2007, the union agreed to set up Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Associations (VEBA) to handle health care liabilities. It was a logical gamble pressed on the union by very difficult economic circumstances–which have only gotten tougher. And now the VEBA is at risk–or at […]

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  I suspect we are going to be distracted by an emerging debate between Congressional Democrats and The White House on how to handle the CEO pay caps written into the economic stimulus bill. This is a distraction because, in all honesty, the pay caps aren’t real.   Today, there is this news in The […]

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The Republicans, and Judd Gregg in particular, have handed the president a golden chance to make lemonade out of lemons. To do so, he has to enact some real change: put a progressive economist or political leader in charge of the renamed Department of Prosperity (formerly known as the Department of Commerce). Follow the argument […]

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   I don’t want to hold up George Soros as the great thinker of the modern era. But, since the guy has billions of dollars (partly made by betting that currencies will collapse so if you are getting some of his money think of it as a make-up payment for leaving lots of people in […]

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To the question "have they no shame?" we already know the answer. And as we dig deeper and scrape the bottom of the barrel where the bottom-feeders have been lurking, we learn more about the immoral behavior of the incompetent, greedy elites. Today, the the tally is $121 million for FOUR–count ’em, FOUR–Merrill Lynch executives. […]

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   On the one hand, this was one of the things that I, and others, worried about when the president announced his Cabinet (and let me just say that it is nice to listen to a president, even one who you disagree with on some fundamental issues of economic power, who can conduct a news […]

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Strap yourself in here because to get to the satisfying end, you’ll have to channel your inner numbers wonk. But, here’s the story: we can save ONE MILLION JOBS by investing about $16 billion. Save jobs…not just create new ones to try to re-employ people. And it would be fast, immediate and efficient.   As […]

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  With the collapse of the financial system, we are witnessing one obvious spectacular failure of the wonders of the "free market". Let’s not forget, though, the other part of the wonderful "free market": the grueling hours, despicable conditions and substandard wages that half the world live in, all a product of the fine system […]

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