Working Life

   Today, I’m going to be talking about labor and the president-elect with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, who, for non-New Yorkers, has one of the most interesting radio talk shows in the city. It’s at 11:25 am Eastern time. Those people fortunate enough to live in NYC (okay, let’s not start a war over that…) can […]

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   Well, duh. We needed a group of economists to tell us what we already know and felt for a long time. And you have to wonder: were they asleep since it took them until now to tell us that, by their reckoning, the recession began a year ago. From the Financial Times: Evidence of […]

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   Even though I’ve suggested that auto workers should not pay for the mistakes made by the industry’s executives, the drumbeat has been pretty persistent that the workers will take another hit. And it picks up in today’s New York Times: While the union has not agreed to reopen contracts at General Motors, Ford and […]

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  The inevitable is happening: the people who lead us over cliff and helped spark the collapse of our financial system are running for cover. They want to avoid responsibility for the debacle. And among those running to hide is Robert Rubin.   In an extraordinary interview published today in The Wall Street Journal, Rubin […]

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  When you are a pro at a scam–the definition of "scam" also can be found under the term "insurance industry"–you know how to try to pull a fast one. And AIG is trying to pull one–under covers of the holidays. Check this out.   You may remember that AIG–which is afloat only thanks to […]

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   I’m going to assume that most of you are still in one state or another of digesting the massive amounts of food you inhaled yesterday. Speaking of digesting, it looks The Treasury can’t swallow the $700 billion bankers’ bailout, or so The Wall Street Journal says this morning: The current Treasury has so far […]

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   Here was something to celebrate: Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report on Friday, February 13.

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  Having crashed the financial system around the globe and consigned millions of people to severe hardship over the next several years, a few bankers are trying to save some face: they are giving back millions of dollars in pay.   I would note first that, personally, I think the whole coterie of Rubinites (those […]

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   Later today, the International Labor Organization will release a sweeping report on global wages. I’ve got a copy and here is the upshot: wages declined in most countries, inequality increase and, thank you very much, a lot of that can be blamed on the wonders of so-called "free trade".   The ILO is an […]

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  Hear me out: this is an argument as much about the place of workers’ issues in the future Administration, as it is an argument for making John Edwards the next Labor Secretary.   When it comes to tackling the economic crisis, the president-elect has been pre-occupied, personnel-wise, with the question of who will be […]

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