Working Life

Every day, if you pay attention, we can get a teachable moment. Today’s teachable moment gives us this: if you are a CEO of a bank, a CEO who makes millions of dollars, and you are in financial trouble — trouble of your own making — you can ring up the White House and, presto, the coffers of the Federal Reserve open up to extend you loans in the billions of dollars. On the other hand, if you are a worker making a modest income, or you are now retired, and you live in a city ravaged by the so-called “free market”, a city that files for bankruptcy, and you ask the White House for help, you are told, “sorry, buddy, you are on your own.”

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Keep your eye on the ball, which is tough when it come to making sure another chunk of change doesn’t end up in the pockets of the big banks. But, it keeps happening.

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Don’t you feel good about bailing out the bastards who crashed the economy? Well, they certainly feel good about your contributions to saving their sorry asses — and they’ve been pocketing nice sums of money as a way of saying “thank you.”

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My first reaction to AIG’s consideration of a suit against the government was like many people: what the fuck? You guys should all be in jail, not swimming along thanks to $182 billion in taxpayer bailout money. But, then, in retrospect, it makes sense.

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   What has been extraordinary to watch over the past 30-40 years is the way in which, when economic crisis strikes, the political and economic leadership of the country leaps into the breach to lend a hand–not to the regular people who suffered the most but, rather, to the very institutions and economic elites who […]

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    I’ve never had the boy gene for cars–the apparent salivation (or other bodily reaction) that goes with having the perfect car. But, I know enough, mostly from watching way too many sports events, to understand that BMW has spent a ton of money marketing itself as the car to have. But, fear not–BMW is […]

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A note to the British: you should thank your lucky stars that the Republicans are not running the Congress because fish and chips would now be renamed Freemarket Delight to protest your government’s decision to levy a tax on bankers’ bonuses. Seriously, here is one small step forward to a rationale response to the obscene […]

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   Turns out that not only have you, the taxpayer, bailed out the "too big too fail" (TBTF) banks but you’ve likely given them a break over smaller banks. So, say the always-accurate folks at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in a new study: In effect, because of the government safety net being […]

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I’ve been reading the various proposals about how to bailout the auto industry. Some of the ideas are good but one piece floating around in the punditry is foolish and dangerous. This has to be done right–and it has to be done in a way that does not attack the workers of the industry.   […]

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   So, let’s see if we can sum this week’s drama:    Over the past weekend, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says, basically, nothing to worry about, we’ve got this financial crisis under control now that we–the taxpayers–own Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.    Opppsss…then comes Monday. Paulson says, eh, don’t worry everything is okay even […]

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