Working Life

If the question is asked of the United States, guess what, the rest of the world owns this country, thanks to the mounting trade deficit. This little summary sent out by our friends at the Economic Policy Institute has a pretty sobering first paragraph: Mounting trade deficits have caused the United States to incur rapidly […]

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I do love this first sentence in today’s New York Times story about Wal-Mart’s agreeing to a union contract–in its British unit… Wal-Mart may be anti-union at home, but overseas the company sometimes sings a different tune. Indeed. This is a perfect example of how the labor laws in the U.S. are so vile and […]

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So, into my email mailbox comes by regular update from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Today, it carries the news that the Gross Domestic Product rose at an annual rate of 5.6 percent in the first quarter. Strap yourself in for the pontificating about how wonderful the U.S. economy is. It ain’t true. Oh, sure, […]

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No surprise that there is a gap between CEO pay and people who earn the minimum wage. But, the gap still is pretty staggering to see, per the Economic Policy Institute: “CEO pay-to-minimum wage ratio soars In 2005, an average Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was paid 821 times as much as a minimum wage earner, […]

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Sometimes it’s one of those unguarded moments that gives one a particular insight. My favorite today is this quote in The New York Times this morning: “This is a big, big hunk of ballast over the side,” said James P. Womack, chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute in Cambridge, Mass.” The “ballast” Womack was referring […]

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Apparently, Democrats are angry that the Pentagon presented a plan to the Administration that calls for troop withdrawals from Iraq–while, at the same time, Republicans were attacking Democrats for suggesting–pretty feebly–that troop withdrawals should begin. Well, boo-hoo, it’s your own fault, my friends. Of course, the Republicans were planning a pre-2006 election phony withdrawal of […]

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Over the past number of months, Ben Stein, a die-hard Republican, has written a few columns that I’ve mentioned here mainly because they were attacking the greedy rich and the outrageous pay packages that CEOs have taken for themselves. When a I-love-capitalism Republican has to stand up and say “enough is enough,” it’s a sign […]

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There was a very important article in The Wall Street Journal yesterday and I posted this at Daily Kos yesterday. It’s almost become an article of faith in the public lore that “generous” pensions for hard-working Americans are the cause of many of the financial binds that private companies (and municipalities) face. I’d bet that […]

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For non-New Yorkers, a little refresher: we have a reprehensible law in New York called the Taylor Law. It prevents public workers from striking and imposes horrendous penalties on strikers and their unions if they try to exercise a basic democratic right. Since the transit workers strike this past December, there has been talk within […]

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To look on the bright side, a majority of the Senate, including 8 Republicans, voted for the increase in the minimum wage–but the amendment failed because it needed a super-majority of 60 votes to pass. Of the 8 Republicans, two who voted for it–Mike DeWine of Ohio and Lincoln Chafee–are facing very difficult re-election bids […]

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