Working Life

It never ceases to amaze me how the promoters of so-called “free trade” just keep shoveling out lies and half-truths to keep promoting an ideology that has clearly failed–if you assess failure, as I do so naively, based on how much trade agreements help people. And the bullshit generation is in full tilt as the […]

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One of my pen pals is Michael Murphy, the Washington State treasurer. Mike is currently serving in his third four-year term and has thirty-three years in public treasury management at both the state and local level. He just dropped me this line about a revealing meeting he had with one of the leading privatizers of […]

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On the road here in Los Angeles, giving a little rap Saturday at a conference of about 500 people on what else? Wal-Mart. The enormous wealth of the Walton family, and good ‘ole Alice Walton’s purchase of a $35 million painting, versus the poverty of the company’s workers truly blows people away. And, lo and […]

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Checking in with the Beast of Bentonville…it’s shareholder meeting time for the Beast. And a few people are asking the Beast to try to clean up its act. Check out this story from the Wall Street Journal today: Wal-Mart Urged to Review Controls Institutional Holders Press For Study of Its Standards On Regulation and Laws […]

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The blind men on the editorial board of The New York Times are at least consistent when it comes to pontificating about trade. This a.m., we’re treated to an editorial “A New Battle Over Free Trade,“(registration required) which gives us the view from the establishment press on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Right […]

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Stretch…ah, Saturday and Sunday it just takes a little longer to turn that computer on. It seems like The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have discovered an amazing fact, almost at the same time: there is such a thing as class. Both of the papers of the elite have been running stories […]

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I’ve talked alot about China and specifically about the hand-wringing over the question of China’s currency. Paul Krugman addresses this today—quite well, I think. He tells, in fairly accessible language for an economist, how the U.S.-China relationship works: China is keeping its currency lower than it should be for a country where investment is flowing […]

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A couple of days ago, I wondered in Flotsam and Jetsam whether the Central American Free Trade Agreement was on the rocks. Today, Elizabeth Becker of The New York Times writes that, “Social Security is not the administration’s only economic initiative that is in trouble in Congress. The current centerpiece of President Bush’s trade agenda, […]

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As the fight over the Central American Free Trade Agreement heats up, I’ll have more to say. CAFTA is yet another in the so-called “free trade” agreements that basically write in law, “let’s screw workers for the sake of capital.” Okay, it’s a bit more sophisticated. Today’s Wall Street Journal, though, has some good news: […]

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I’m shocked, shocked that the White House would be trying to sell the new version of their Social Security as a plan to protect the poor and, get this, slash benefits for the “wealthy.” Which journalist do they have on the payroll now to help them sell that load of bull? Actually, the usual lambs […]

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