Working Life

    I’m a little surprised that this story has become more than it should be. Apparently, yesterday’s story in The Wall Street Journal that related Barack Obama’s pledge that he would work to end the government control over the Teamsters has caused a bit of a hoo-hah. It elicited this story today in The New […]

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    The Wall Street Journal has this interesting story today: Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the union and the Obama campaign.     And… Neither Sen. Obama nor […]

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    You may recall that 13 workers died on February 7th in an explosion at a sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia. Today, The Wall Street Journal has a fine story looking at the disaster and the dangers from dust and the failure of federal and safety officials to do much about the risks. First, […]

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  I’ve said before that I believe that the Democratic nomination fight is over, though the hype may drag on for a bit. But, a nice chunk of super delegates–perhaps as many as a dozen or more–may make their choice based on where the candidates stand on trade. And that’s a good sign for people […]

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When I read yesterday’s account of the debate over what to do about rising gasoline prices, I really was astounded by the pandering–though I sometimes wonder why one would be astounded in this era where getting elected is far more important than taking a principled position. On this issue, the scorecard is clear: Sens. Clinton […]

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    If you think the home value situation couldn’t get worse, think again: American homes are losing their value at the fastest rate in two decades, according to a closely watched report released on Tuesday. In the 12 months ended in February, the Case-Shiller home price index, which measures the value of single-family homes in […]

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    There has been a movement growing among truckers nationwide to protest not just high gasoline prices but the general attack against workers. It’s an interesting movement in large part because it’s truly grassroots–it has been driven (no pun intended) by a loosely-knit group that has found allies throughout the country but it has no […]

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   I’m going to ask for your indulgence for another moment–but this is just an important and personal issue to me. A week ago, I wrote about Jimmy Carter’s meeting with representatives of Hamas. Carter had a simple idea: you only make peace with your enemies and you can only make peace when you talk […]

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    You would have thought that the media industry would have learned a lesson–the Writers Guild of American strike went on for a very long time because the producers thought they could easily break the union. That turned out to be a miscalculation. But, there are ominous signs that the producers are trying to play […]

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    Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of the best legislators in the Congress on just about every issue but certainly on trade, had an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal yesterday that called "Don’t Call Me a Protectionist". Taking on the issue of the so-called "free trade" deal with Colombia, here’s the key passage: Let’s […]

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