Working Life

   Well, the press (or, at least, The Los Angeles Times) is finally catching up with the public: For a generation, most people accepted the idea that the core of what makes America tick was an economy governed by free markets. And whatever combination of goods, services and jobs the market cooked up was presumed […]

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   My other obsession besides the triumph of workers over the running dog employers is baseball. Let’s see if we can do this with the following rules: talk about what you see your team doing WITHOUT trashing another team.  If you want to say something about another team, it’s got to be nice. This is […]

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   At least, for the foreseeable future. So says an article in yesterday’s New York Times: In recent months, nearly 100 newspapers in the United States have endorsed the Colombia trade agreement. So have many top Democrats, including Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago. And Mr. Uribe, who was already popular in Congress, was widely […]

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  There seems to be an emerging consensus that so-called "free trade" is dead. Even the business press is beginning to accept the inevitable. So, maybe we can now begin a rationale debate about trade, without meaningless marketing phrases like "free trade".   Yesterday, Bloomberg ran this piece: The liberalization of global trade has come […]

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  It was probably pretty obvious but there is a damning report out yesterday that paints a stark picture: the collapse of the housing bubble has created a savings and retirement crisis for millions of Americans who face a bleak future.   The report (which you can get here) comes from the folks at the […]

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    Sometimes getting a deal made isn’t the last word. Yesterday, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced that its members had approved the deal it had struck with producers. The margin was fairly healthy–62 percent–but not as large as previous contract votes. But, to get to the contract deal, AFTRA had to […]

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   Panic continues to be the word for the day in the financial markets. The big news is the cratering of the shares yesterday of the two big mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times lead with the stories. Here’s the Journal: Investors dumped shares […]

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   I have this on my mind for two reasons today. First, a little factoid I read courtesy of the Sierra Club. As you all may know, compact flourescent lightbulbs are more efficient. But: Despite the fact that the compact fluorescent bulb generates the same amount of light withone quarter of the electricity,the WTO considers […]

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   My first reaction looking at the grim news all around–say, that American is going to cut 7,000 jobs by the end of the year–was to write about the litany of awful crap coming down on workers around the country. But, it being the day before Independence Day (and, as a result, yours truly gets […]

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   No surprise, really, that this poll would show that most Americans oppose so-called "free trade": (CNN) — As Sen. John McCain prepares to promote free trade during a high-profile trip to Colombia and Mexico, a poll out Tuesday suggests the issue may be a political hurdle as the general election campaign heats up.   […]

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