Working Life

I’m reading the reports of the awful job reports that came out today. I’ve been arguing for some time that the search of "green shoots" in the economy is a mirage and an experiment that covers up how bad the economy is for real people. But, this made me stop in my tracks.   From […]

Read the full story

   We would all agree that we want a "healthy" economy. But, what constitutes healthy? It certainly isn’t the economy we have today, where hundreds of millions of people around the globe struggle to survive, even in "good times" when government statistics tell us we should be thrilled and happy because the economy is "growing". […]

Read the full story

People are missing the point about the reappointment of Ben Bernanke to head the Federal Reserve Board. Appoint him or not, choose a Republican or a Democrat or not–until we decide to change the way we see the role of the Federal Reserve Board, and how the economy is structured, the power over our lives […]

Read the full story

   In today’s installment of The Audacity of Greed, we bring you the story of Andrew Hall: In a few weeks, the Treasury Department’s czar of executive pay will have to answer this $100 million question: Should Andrew J. Hall get his bonus? Mr. Hall, the 58-year-old head of Phibro, a small commodities trading firm […]

Read the full story

Today, the minimum wage rises to $7.25 an hour. We should all be glad that millions of people are going to get a bit more money in their pockets. But, this hike masks a very grim fact: the “recovery” is not going to happen anytime soon, if the measure we use for “recovery” is that […]

Read the full story

I fear for our country. Medicare has been one of the most successful programs in the history of our country. But, there is apparently a push to "curb the cost" (read: cut) Medicare, even though there is plenty of money to keep it robust–if our political leaders stop trying to appease the wrong people.   […]

Read the full story

   I’m getting increasingly pissed off about the debate about health care, and the larger obscenity that our states are collapsing, services are being cut, millions of people are losing jobs–and the richest Americans just can’t step out and say, "yes, we should pay more to have a decent society". If you want to see […]

Read the full story

   This is the definition of perversion (the dictionary tells us that something perverted is "deviating from what is considered right or acceptable; wrong , improper, etc. or corrupt, wicked, etc."). The real unemployment rate is around 16 percent, millions of people are struggling partly because of the behavior of the people running the financial […]

Read the full story

The minimum wage is a scandal. It masks poverty. It must be dramatically raised.   On July 24th, the minimum wage will rise to $7.25 an hour. I applaud people who worked hard to pass the three-step hike. The new level will put some extra money in the pockets of millions of Americans and, modestly, […]

Read the full story

   I can’t help but laugh at the transparent crap passed around by the protectors of the financial kingdom. In a column in today’s Wall Street Journal, Roger Altman writes under the headline, "We’ll Need To Raise Taxes Soon". Altman’s tagline for his bio reads: "founder and chairman of Evercore Partners, was deputy secretary of […]

Read the full story