Working Life

   Confusing signals are coming out about what the apparent inevitable bankruptcy of Chrysler will mean. But, I do think this will be another stake driven into the idea of having real pensions anymore–which is kind of shocking given how many people just lost much of their retirement in the greed-is-good collapse of economy. I’ll […]

Read the full story

  The last week has been filled with a whole raft of economic scandals that it’s hard to pick through the wreckage. But, I’ll try.   First, a publishing note: last week, I posted the first Friday Scandal Update. I will maybe keep this up–and please suggest your own scandals–both here in the comments and, […]

Read the full story

The Republicans, and Judd Gregg in particular, have handed the president a golden chance to make lemonade out of lemons. To do so, he has to enact some real change: put a progressive economist or political leader in charge of the renamed Department of Prosperity (formerly known as the Department of Commerce). Follow the argument […]

Read the full story

I’m all for a little rhetoric and bashing CEOs who, as a class, have lined their pockets while pillaging the country. But, if the point is to stop the legal looting of corporate treasuries and leave some money in the till for regular workers, when you get right down to it, the CEO pay caps […]

Read the full story

    I suppose nothing should surprise us. But, here’s another one in a list of "let them eat cake" moments: CEOs are getting major boosts in their pensions, while the pensions of most Americans have either disappeared or take a major hit.   This article largely escaped notice in last week’s Wall Street Journal, whose […]

Read the full story

Jay Gould, the robber baron of the 19th Century, famously said that, "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half." As we live through one of the worst economic collapses in a century, Gould’s wish is coming true. And we must stop Gould’s modern-day robber barons from sowing seeds […]

Read the full story

   The obscenity continues in America. The economy is destroyed–short-term and long-term–by incompetents and greedy people. But, it’s regular people who had nothing to do with this disaster who take the hit. And now we have the governor of New York blessing the disaster by taking aim at workers and letting the rich of the […]

Read the full story

   It still seems astonishing to me that, despite the evidence that they simply can’t be trusted, the people who got us into the mess we are in–the rabid "free marketeers"–still seem to have jobs–and are being asked to continue to serve in our government and are sought after for advice. While certainly I am […]

Read the full story

   The wild swings in the markets around the world are just the most obvious symptom of an economy heading down. You probably know by now that credit is frozen–so businesses can’t borrow to pay off normal bills. Banks are just unwillining to hand out money when they have no idea what the underlying value […]

Read the full story

There is a great economic emergency looming in our country. But, it seems to me that we—or at least our elected leaders—have only looked at one side of the crisis, that of the housing bubble-inspired financial credit crunch. By doing so, we’ve missed the bigger picture and the solutions needed. So, here is one person’s […]

Read the full story