Working Life

It was worth reading the piece by Roger Lowenstein in the recent Sunday New York Times Magazine. Here are some excerpts: After Bush’s re-election, I carefully read the 225-page annual report of the Social Security trustees. I also talked to actuaries and economists, inside and outside the agency, who are expert in the peculiar science […]

Read the full story

Reading a fascinating book called “The Chinese Century” by Oded Shenkar (see recommended books). China is already the main global player in toys (70 percent of the world’s output), bicycles (60 percent), half its shoes and one-third of its luggage. But, Shenkar’s main point is that it is wrong to assume that China is simply […]

Read the full story

I think you can get a feel for the different approaches in the debate about the future of labor. I don’t agree with every piece of anyone’s proposal but having open debate is essential. SEIU’s website (www.unitedtowin.org) is freewheeling–it lets anyone post a comment and go on for as long as they wish…though that’s not […]

Read the full story

FDR created social security–and Ronald Reagan saved it… Hard to remember but when Social Security was supposedly facing a financial bind back in the 1980’s, Reagan made a deal with Tip O’Neill (then-Speaker of the House in the days when Democrats still controlled Congress): no benefit cuts and a hike in taxes. True, it was […]

Read the full story

If you wanted any more information about the rise of China as the world’s global economic power of the next century, today’s Wall Street Journal reports: “China’s trade volume was $1.1 trillion in 2004, state media reported, up from $850 billion the previous year. The record annual trading volume, the sum of China’s exports and […]

Read the full story

You remember the Administration’s Iraq “Coalition of the Willing,” which was a sham from the start, including such important military powers as Poland. It was a title for a coalition with no real meaning. Labor has its version. Just picked up the AFL-CIO magazine, which notes, as has been noted elsewhere in labor’s propoganda, that […]

Read the full story

James Brooke has a piece today on the devastation facing Mongolia when the worldwide quotas on apparel end Jan 1 2005. I’ve previously mulled this over here and here. What struck me with this piece was the observation that Brooke says that the end of the quotas would save American consumers $6 billion a year. […]

Read the full story

It’s bad enough that Wal-Mart is everywhere in the economy: largest importer of goods from China; driving other companies like Toys-R-Us to the verge of bankruptcy by driving prices down, down, down, chirping on the television with those misleading ads talking about the Wal-Mart paradise for communities and workers; and, of course, paying workers poverty […]

Read the full story

So, I got into a little debate with a few people on one of the sites promoting “Democratic-friendly” companies. Their legitimate campaign goes something like this: we’re going to put our consumer dollars only into companies that support Democrats, based on data on campaign contributions. I think there’s a problem with that strategy on at […]

Read the full story

I had to read Keith Bradesher’s Dec. 14th front-page piece on Bangladesh several times to get over how bizarre it was. Don’t worry, Bradesher says, Bangladesh will be fine when the world’s apparel industry shifts massively towards China–think of the Earth as a table and tilting it slightly towards China and watching everything slide from […]

Read the full story