Working Life

    1.4 BILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD MAKE $1.25 A DAY.    That is a fact. That is a moral scandal.    Yesterday, I was at the United Nations for the unveiling of an important, if a bit boringly titled, "Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization". You should read this report but […]

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Gupta. Rajaratnam. Blaring headlines are a potentially dangerous distraction from the truth: the bankers responsible for the economic catastrophe that wiped out millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in wealth are still free and clear, reaping tens of millions of dollars more and laughing all the way to next purchase of a yacht or […]

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   Well, we didn’t really have to wait for the Congressional Budget Office to tell us this: the rich got richer. But, the timing is good, what with Rick Perry trying his snake oil salesman pitch for a flat tax, which would make the robbery grow, and the continued growth of the Occupy The Country […]

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    Each year, on this day, I try to write something about the late Paul Wellstone who was one of the few elected politicians who really had a deep soul and compass when it came to representing the people. Nine years ago, Paul died in a plane crash, along with his wife, Sheila, daughter Marcia, […]

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   People who live in New York City and don’t even own cars might shrug about this. But, in the car culture everywhere else, this is an interesting development: Workers at a Southern California car wash have organized and won a labor contract with their employers, making it what’s believed to be the only unionized […]

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   Nah, not Mary and what’s his name’s father…there was one, right? Okay, couldn’t the resist the title for this story: The Transport Workers Union on Monday is slated to petition the government to call a representation election in which the union hopes to win the right to represent 650 flight attendants at discounter Virgin […]

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   Jacqueline Siegel is the target audience Republicans–and too many Democrats–fear will be the awful victims of higher taxes on the wealthiest one percent. Join me as we shed tears together for the woes of the Siegels.  The ballroom: Jacqueline Siegel paces the floor of her unfinished 7,200-square-foot ballroom. The former beauty queen, with platinum-blond […]

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    This is great news: Senate and House leaders are becoming more directly involved with the supercommittee responsible for delivering a sizable deficit-reduction plan by Thanksgiving, amid growing concern the panel’s members could be deadlocked. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has been meeting more frequently with Democratic members of the 12-member supercommittee, an […]

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   Pardon me while I yawn. The measly fine that Citigroup is paying to settle civil complaints charging that the bank defrauded investors is really something else: it’s a stay-out-of-jail, keep-your-reputation card for Robert Rubin and a lot of other senior Citi officials, past and present. Instead, this deal–as was true with the miniscule fines […]

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    You want a reason for the uprisings in Greece, where workers are on strike to protest the brutal austerity measures, or OccupyWallStreet or the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia fanned by the deep unemployment? Or are you looking for a reason people don’t believe the economy is getting better even when "growth" seems to […]

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