Working Life

Hate to say “I told you so” but the darkening signs in the economy are growing. The New York Times reports that consumer confidence has dropped: Americans are more pessimistic than they have been all year about the state of the economy, according to a new report that reflects a widespread view that a period […]

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For a long time, a number of people–the Economic Policy Institute and yours truly–have pointed out that workers have not been getting much out of the rise in productivity. Today, The New York Times wakes up to that phenomena with a front-page story: With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance […]

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This isn’t surprising and something I’ve written about over the years. I’ll come back to this asap–when I’m not under the gun–but I thought people would want to read this, if you haven’t seen the report: Washington, D.C.: An analysis of the nation’s most important labor-market survey concludes that official estimates of the number of […]

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This report was actually out a week ago but I just came on it–it’s from the smart folks over at the Center for Economic and Policy Research: Pharmaceutical companies are making billions in excess profits under the new Medicare drug benefit, according to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. In the […]

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Must have been the heat…or the pile of work…or both…but the daily post slipped by until now. But, as someone who spent a couple of years back…well, a while ago…waiting on tables, this caught my eye. WASHINGTON (AP) — Tip money earned by waitresses in Las Vegas, manicurists in Hollywood and bartenders in Seattle is […]

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A couple of days ago, I wrote about the immoral bill that the House passed, linking the estate tax to the hike in the minimum wage. As Harry Reid is pointing out, in threatening to launch a filibuster in the Senate, the estate tax cut will cost taxpayers $300 billion. The truth is that if […]

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I’ve got something to say about the attempt to link the minimum wage hike and the estate tax cut…and will do so later, if you want to check back, probably, egads, tonight! Running wild this a.m. UPDATE: this was really the height of Republican gall–linking the passage of the hike in the minimum wage cut […]

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From the Economic Policy Institute: Real hourly wages rose 0.2% in June, reversing a three month slide from March through May. Over the first two quarters of this year, both real hourly wage and weekly earnings have been flat, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite growing more quickly in recent […]

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Here’s a stunning example of the way in which corporations and rich people reaped huge windfalls in the wake of 9-11 even as people died. While ordinary people may have lost money in the post-9-11 decline of the stock market, executives made off like bandits. Kudos to The Wall Street Journal for this story, though […]

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This is such a goofy first couple of praragraphs in today’s New York Times story headlined “Fast Growth In Economy After 9/11.” : New York City’s economy bounced back after Sept. 11 with surprising speed and is much healthier now than its slow-growing job market indicates, according to a report released yesterday by the Federal […]

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