Working Life

Well, I was just paraphrasing a good headline from the Economic Policy Institute (imagine that…a snappy headline from the staid but smart folks over there…keep it up). A few days ago, I wrote about the idiocy of the Senate linking tax cuts to a hike in the minimum wage. Max Sawicky at EPI had a […]

Read the full story

I’m a little disappointed that House Democrats have apparently caved into the demand that, in order to get a minimum wage hike, business has to get tax breaks. Is there any piece of economic legislation that we can pass in this day and age that does not have a tax break in it? Please. Here’s […]

Read the full story

I know this will be a shocker for most of you: the rich are getting more from the economy than the average person. Wow. But, it is worth backing up what we know already with some statistics–which the good folks at the Economic Policy Institute have done: Newly released data from two separate sources reveal […]

Read the full story

Not surprisingly, the minimum wage passed the House yesterday with an overwhelming vote: 315-116. Joining all Democrats were 82 Republicans who were smart enough, even if they detest the idea of giving the working poor even a smidgen more money, to understand that voting against the hike would probably mean losing more House seats in […]

Read the full story

Since I never indulge in New Year’s resolutions, I thought, instead, it would be worth drawing up an economic to-do list for the Democratic leaders. It would be a guidepost for the Congressional leadership, or for presidential-wannabes so that we, the voters, can find out what they stand for besides simply audacity and hope. The […]

Read the full story

Lo and behold, I just get finished writing about the phony promise of education as our economic salvation and, down from the mountaintop, drops a new report from—get this cool name—New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. I guess by putting “new” in the title the Commission was hoping to pull one over […]

Read the full story

Over and over again, the people of our country hear that the solution to inadequate wages, disappearing heath care, vanishing pensions, and staggering personal debt is quite simple: get educated. It may sound right but it’s utterly phony. Hardly a day goes by when politicians or pundits don’t slip in a plug for a “smarter” […]

Read the full story

Earlier this week, I wrote a piece that took the Democrats to task for having a wimpy economic plan. Some people took offense—but I don’t think I was tough enough. If you look just at the party’s plan for raising the minimum wage, you can only conclude this: the Democratic Party does not want to […]

Read the full story

One issue that is on the radar screen–I’ve been getting a slew of emails on the subject–is the fight to get Congress to give paid sick days for workers. One bill proposed by Sen. Edward Kennedy–who will be the chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the new Congress come January–would guarantee […]

Read the full story

The other day, I wrote about recommendations made by a Bush Administration-appointed committee to ease up on regulations in capital markets. If you’re interested in reading the whole draft report, here it is–in its entire 152-page sleep-inducing form. A couple of other thoughts since my initial post. One of the he first point that leaps […]

Read the full story