Working Life

This is simply a tale of having a gun put to your head: vote “yes” or we screw you even harder.

Read the full story

Today’s lesson is another chapter in why Detroit workers — regular people — don’t get treated like CEOs. Meaning, when someone else screws up, workers get the shaft. But, when the CEO screws up, no problem — he gets to keep a truckload of money. Though one trustee, thankfully, is not buying it.

Read the full story

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.

Read the full story

Really? The White House is saying to Detroit basically “take a hike” when it comes to a bailout — but, don’t worry, pension holders in Detroit, you have a defender…the Republican Michigan attorney general. This is bizarre and troubling.

Read the full story

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.”

Read the full story

I mean this in a couple of ways. If people in Detroit were all named “Jamie Dimon,” a bailout would be on its way, free and clear, low-interest, no questions asked, the same kind of bailout JP Morgan Chase’s Dimon and his gang of thieves on Wall Street were able to pocket after they cratered the economy. But, barring Dimon being an actual whore, not simply a financial one, the familial connection ain’t happening for the people of Detroit — not that they’d really want it. That said, there is a real argument to made: Wall Street should pay for Detroit’s fiscal situation. And I’d propose a surtax on profits called “The Jamie Dimon Surtax.”

Read the full story

Detroit. The filing for bankruptcy is a sad, but, in a way, predictable event — if one is willing to see what this really means. It’s a deep metaphor for the failure of the so-called “free market”.

Read the full story

Detroit is about to be savaged — not by the industrial woes that have plagued the city for too many years. Nope, now riding into the city with an axe is an “emergency manager.” And let’s be clear: workers are the target.

Read the full story

   It’s hard to read about what has happened to Detroit. Now, this via The Wall Street Journal: A new state law has emboldened the Detroit mayor and schools chief to take a more aggressive stance toward public unions as the city leaders try to mop up hundreds of millions of dollars in red ink. […]

Read the full story

   It is endlessly fascinating and grotesque at the same time (I have these combined feelings a lot these days–maybe I need professional help) to read media reports about the cuts that the UAW is agreeing to. Here’s another example in The New York Times from today: Ford Motor said Wednesday that its new agreement […]

Read the full story