Working Life

Yesterday, I raised my concerns about the Senate’s proposal to hand more power to the Federal Reserve Board and give the Fed the role of protecting consumers. Honestly, I thought it was a cruel joke and a perfect example of the Washington insiders protecting the interests of Wall Street. Barney Frank agrees.   Here is […]

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  It is not easy, under our current "free market" economic rules, to push corporations to do the right thing when the overriding imperative of every CEO is to maximize their own massive pay packages. But, every year, the federal government spends billions of dollars in our tax dollars–our hard-earned money–to buy services. Here is […]

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   I do not like to be negative. I’m actually quite the optimist, generally speaking. So, I admit to feeling uneasy that I’ve been presistently, regularly disbelieving about the talk of "economic recovery". I think that such talk ignores the actual FACTS and is largely driven by political imperatives–meaning, politicians who want to be re-elected […]

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   Some people are not suffering (via The Wall Street Journal): As financial firms rebounded last year, Wall Street bonuses for employees in the New York City securities industry rose almost 17% to $20.3 billion in 2009, according to a report released Tuesday by the New York State comptroller.  

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Wall Street loves a disaster. The more chaos, the better–because, no matter what happens to regular people, chaos can mean lots of profits. That is why the deep reform we need in the way the financial world works is so important–and why Wall Street is fighting so hard to stop it.   This past Friday, […]

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Among the most troubling retreats, in my view, in the public discourse has been the adoption of the false idea that deep government involvement in the economy is a bad thing. It’s a retreat that too many Democrats have taken part in. The problem is the FACTS say otherwise. And the known left-wing organ, The […]

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We are angry, rightly so, about the obscene bonuses and pay given to bankers and the financial mandarins who destroyed the economy. Part of the problem is that the political dialogue–parroted by the traditional media and the political leaders who are bought and paid for by the financial industry– never questions a basic premise: that […]

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   While the pitchforks are aimed at Goldman Sachs and AIG, another player quietly showers its people with cash (via the Financial Times): Lazard broke ranks with its Wall Street rivals on Wednesday by accelerating promised cash payments to staff in the fourth quarter in a move that pushed the 162-year-old investment bank into the […]

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  We are still not being serious about asking people to pay their fair share: Taxes on high-income earners would rise by nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years, under the budget plan put forward by President Barack Obama on Monday. The bulk of that increase comes as tax cuts enacted under President George […]

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Solidarity is one of the bedrock principles of the labor movement. It has a pretty sound strategic and tactical basis: you can’t win if your ranks are divided. I don’t mean that you can’t have debate. I mean that we have to support certain general principles. Here is an example: public employees are not to […]

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