Working Life

   The forces trying to instill some rollback of the power of the financial elites suffered two defeats yesterday. First, Bernie Sanders’ amendment to bring more scrutiny to the Fed was watered down. Where did the pressure come from to let the Fed continue to operate in the same way it did before the crisis–a […]

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   It may seem relatively small but there will be an excellent window through which to view the president’s future intentions: will he be for the people or for the financial interests? Many people have already made up their minds–for good reason. But, this will be a moment–will the Administration veto the financial reform bill […]

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This past Saturday, we had a great march for immigration rights in New York City–on May 1st, thankfully, and sponsored by the labor movement to boot. Without a doubt, the Arizona racist legislation gave a boost to the turnout on a sun-drenched day. But, here is the point I have made in the past, and […]

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The lines are clear: it’s the people versus the banks and Wall Street. While both the House and Senate bills do not go far enough and have already been, in my view, watered down, there is one issue that we can still fight hard on–and have the back of the president: an independent Consumer Financial […]

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  It is not easy, under our current "free market" economic rules, to push corporations to do the right thing when the overriding imperative of every CEO is to maximize their own massive pay packages. But, every year, the federal government spends billions of dollars in our tax dollars–our hard-earned money–to buy services. Here is […]

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   In one day, you can read how the powerful economic interests have defeated the public interest. Start with the  theatrics of the health care "summit"–an event that only underscores how the insurance industry has defeated the people. Already anticipating failure, the president wants to roll back health reform even further: President Barack Obama will […]

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While I do not agree with the way in which the president took on health care and the mess we ended up with, he was absolutely right to understand that health care reform was essential to ensure a strong (and, need I say, moral) economy AND job growth. I think it is unfortunate that too […]

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We are being distracted by numbers that are a sideshow. The new Gross Domestic Product numbers and the obsession about the fiscal deficits are obscuring the real problem in America–wages.   Yes, we have a massive jobs crisis. I have been pretty clearly supporting the idea that we need far bigger stimulus and that the […]

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Before the State Of The Union kthalps: guys, the only way obama can repeal dont ask dont tell is if we dont ask dont tell. so shut up abt it. duh! State Of The Union Starts kthalps: I guess we’ll have accept third-place “I do not accept second-place for the United States of America.” -Barack […]

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   Maybe it slipped by me but the president never used the word "union" in last night’s State of The Union address. Kudos to him for talking about the jobs crisis in America, and he correctly criticized the immoral and irresponsible behavior of too many Wall Street bankers and the Supreme Court’s decision to let […]

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