Working Life

   It really is no surprise, unfortunately, that the country is spinning out of control, the middle-class is dying and we are trapped in some of the dumbest debates imaginable–chief among them the entirely phony argument over a non-existent debt and deficit "crisis". Not surprising because many of these debates have political leaders essentially taking […]

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   It’s bad enough that the global financial crisis has put millions of people out of work and trashed the future of the ranks of workers everywhere. But, let’s take a moment to consider an undercurrent of the economic crisis, fanned by fear, stupidity and the relentless drive to cut government (oh, that comes under […]

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    It’s a great time in America–if you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Not so much if you are a regular American. The profit gains of the Fortune 500 registered the third largest gain in history in 2010. By contrast, the people continue to struggle. Even the editors of Fortune recognize the […]

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   It never ends. The robbery of the great wealth of the nation. The Audacity of Greed of the CEO class is never quenched. On Friday, I wrote about the huge pay increases sweeping through the CEO class in the financial community. It’s a cancer that is spreading again everywhere. Let me start with this […]

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   The answer is no, I’m not surprised. But, we must never lose the sense of outrage or simply shrug because "it’s just the way it is". Never. The absolute Audacity of Greed has to be challenged every moment.    In the Financial Times today: Jamie Dimon underlined Wall Street’s return to health after the […]

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   I know there is an obvious answer to this question: does the Chamber of Commerce ever stop lying? Since you’ve answered that yourself, let’s consider for a moment the most immediate lie–and the truth about the economic reality facing most working people.   There is, as we know, a concerted effort by Republicans and […]

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   The revolt is spreading to other states. And here is one reason we must fight: Wal-Mart’s earnings rose sharply.    Indiana : On Monday, thousands of steelworkers, autoworkers and other labor activists surrounded the Indiana state capitol to protest a bill before the legislature to dramatically weaken the clout of private-sector unions.   Ohio […]

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    I am struck every day by the incredibly bizarre world we live in, where "up" is "down" and "down" is "up". I think many people are angry and confused because what they see in their daily lives–upheaval, struggle, fear–does not match much of the rhetoric coming from the people who have their hands on […]

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We have an affliction that really undermines a decent society. It’s a tendency to want to ignore inconvenient facts, either explicitly or because we are encouraged to look quite narrowly and myopically at a problem. Which brings me to Wal-Mart’s new attempt to whitewash its practices, using the First Lady as a prop.   We […]

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Yesterday, I wrote about the disastrous state of labor in the wake of the elections. Suffering from either a lack of sleep or simple brain lock, I neglected to include one of the most dangerous coming debacles: we have lost much of the ground built opposing so-called "free trade" agreements, which have played a central […]

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