Working Life

Michael Bloomberg is channeling Jay Gould, the robber baron of the 20th Century. Gould once said, roughly, that he could get one half of the working class to kill the other half. Bloomberg is on that agenda, setting workers and parents against each other, with the bottom line being yet another chink likely to be taken out of a middle class-paying job.

Read the full story

   Billions of dollars can buy you a lot–for example, a little toy called New York City that you pocket for yourself and, then, keep for yourself even when the rules say it’s time to go (hey, if you’ve got billions, you can buy off politicians to let you keep the toy for a little […]

Read the full story

    I think we make a mistake describing the unrelenting class warfare underway as a campaign undertaken by evil, crazed or demented very rich people. Sure, there are a few of them and it is certainly a part of an ideological belief ("we rich people are just better and more skilled and tough luck"). But, […]

Read the full story

  I think the hardest part of being immersed in a battle–even one that is energizing and inspiring–is to see where we stand in the overall war (with apologies to those who don’t like the military imagery). No doubt, the people in Wisconsin–and hundreds of thousands of supporters nationwide–have given the anti-union forces something to […]

Read the full story

Yes, to get back to some sane, healthy economic strategy we have to confront the Wall Street/Robert Rubins of the world, the corruption of the electoral system and a whole set of adversaries. But, I would put at the top of the list the false framing of the choices before us as a nation, and […]

Read the full story

   I’m not sure that anyone has told NY Comptroller Bill Thompson yet but his race for mayor is over…effectively. His only prayer (and any other candidate’s only prayer) to defeat the billionaire mayor was to have a unified labor movement behind him. It was the only way–and even that was a big "if"–to balance […]

Read the full story

   I am not going to say too much about whether I agree or disagree with the entirely self-serving, hypocritical, "Only I Can Save You" decision by his lordship NYC Mayor (or is that "God"?) Michael Bloomberg to reverse his position on term limits and seek a change in the law that would bar him […]

Read the full story

   There is a pretty interesting poll out today in The New York Times about our billionaire mayor. The teflon mayor is still pretty popular–something I’ve never understood. But, people are paying attention to one of his failings–choosing development over the lives of workers. I’ve been watching the fatalities and injuries pile up for a […]

Read the full story

    A year and a half ago, I wrote about the scam that is Goldman Sachs–a company that was about to shower billions of dollars on its executives after it had gotten stupendous tax breaks from New York’s city and state governments; a few days later, we also learned that the company’s top dog was […]

Read the full story