Working Life

As Labor Day looms on the horizon, I ring up Larry Mishel, distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, to talk about his new study looking at CEO greed. Not a shock, but if you are wondering where that pay increase went, it’s probably in the CEO’s bank account. A logical conversation after digging into […]

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In the sea of millions of migrant workers who end up slaves or in forced labor, a pilot project has empowered Nepalese women working in Jordan’s garment industry to make a better deal. I spoke to the International Labor Organization’s Phillip Fishman about how the project works—and whether it can be scaled up. I, then, […]

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I love this description of the people burrowing deep inside government agencies to screw the people: political termites. And it comes courtesy of investigative journalist David Cay Johnston who returns to the podcast to discuss with me his new book, “It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What The Trump Administration Is Doing To America”. I […]

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This won’t shock anyone. CEO pay is still a gold mine.

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Yeah, so, this is decidedly NOT new. CEOs are raking in vast riches yet again, using the usual confidence schemes they’ve used for a few decades. While inequality grows, it’s still really, really good times in the CEO suite.

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Pearls of wisdom. Not the economics–because it is absurd, the reality not of “free market” competition but the reality of cronyism, corruption and greed. But, Dan Price saw the immorality of paying people shit and did something about it: he cut his pay and is raising everyone’s wages.

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I wonder what the genius in the White House, who organized the president’s celebration of Wal-Mart this past week, will say now. Or was it the president who thought, “gee, Wal-Mart, now there’s a model to hold up”. Just to aid anyone who had any doubts about the kind of company the Beast of Bentonville really is, Wal-Mart is happy to effectively lie to make sure its executives get their huge bonuses.

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You know, every year, I get all hot and bothered around this time because there is always a flood of breathless articles about the stupendous rise in CEO pay and benefits. And I know a lot of good people who spend inordinate amounts of time trying to get shareholders to approve resolutions to have some “say on pay” or some other meaningless statement about what the pigs at the trough are pocketing. But, at the end of the day, I think it’s time just to say: give the CEO whatever pay he wants IF…and I’ll tell you what the “If” is in a sec.

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I can’t let Detroit go partly because there is so much to learn from the robbery that took place in the past and is continuing to this day. Today, let’s consider for a moment the price regular workers pay when something goes bad versus the price CEOs never pay when something goes askew. It’s a telling story about the deep corruption of the system.

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So, when I read this shit, I admit to laughing: there is a certain about of humor I find, mixed with the disgust, in the absolute ability of the captains of industry to continue to act like pigs at the trough in the face of all the misery of unemployment, low wages, no pensions and fear still coursing throughout every community. The system of greed, fired up by the great, almighty, “free market”, just soldiers on in another fourth dimension. They just do not care

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