Working Life

   On the face of it, it’s a good thing when the labor movement leverages the trillions of dollars–yes, that’s TRILLIONS–that sit in pension funds. It’s been a topic of debate for a long time. The question is: what do we get? Here is the example, via The Wall Street Journal: New York Gov. Andrew […]

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May I introduce to you my hero for the day: Jed S. Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan. Yesterday, Rakoff said what we all know: the government, our government, is not serious about holding people accountable for the robbery and greed and incompetence that led to the financial collapse, costing millions of people […]

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   The "Greed is Good" ethos–let me get my hands on every dollar possible no matter how many people lose their jobs or how sleazy I look or how bad this is for the shareholders–has not gone away. As I’ve argued, part of the problem is that, since the financial crisis in 2008, the system […]

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    1.4 BILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD MAKE $1.25 A DAY.    That is a fact. That is a moral scandal.    Yesterday, I was at the United Nations for the unveiling of an important, if a bit boringly titled, "Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization". You should read this report but […]

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Gupta. Rajaratnam. Blaring headlines are a potentially dangerous distraction from the truth: the bankers responsible for the economic catastrophe that wiped out millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in wealth are still free and clear, reaping tens of millions of dollars more and laughing all the way to next purchase of a yacht or […]

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   Jacqueline Siegel is the target audience Republicans–and too many Democrats–fear will be the awful victims of higher taxes on the wealthiest one percent. Join me as we shed tears together for the woes of the Siegels.  The ballroom: Jacqueline Siegel paces the floor of her unfinished 7,200-square-foot ballroom. The former beauty queen, with platinum-blond […]

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   Pardon me while I yawn. The measly fine that Citigroup is paying to settle civil complaints charging that the bank defrauded investors is really something else: it’s a stay-out-of-jail, keep-your-reputation card for Robert Rubin and a lot of other senior Citi officials, past and present. Instead, this deal–as was true with the miniscule fines […]

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    You want a reason for the uprisings in Greece, where workers are on strike to protest the brutal austerity measures, or OccupyWallStreet or the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia fanned by the deep unemployment? Or are you looking for a reason people don’t believe the economy is getting better even when "growth" seems to […]

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   Welcome to another edition in the economic philosophy of the Republican Party, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Today, courtesy of the Citizens for Tax Justice, it’s the Herman Cain Robin Hood-in-reverse plan. Courtesy of CTJ: If presidential candidate Herman Cain’s proposed “9-9-9 tax plan” was in effect today, then […]

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    The people are there. Not surprisingly. If the politicians could get their hands out of the pockets of their contributors, we’d have some progress. All the way from the Financial Times: A poll released on Monday by Quinnipiac University found 61 per cent of registered New York City voters supported extending the state’s surcharge, […]

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