Working Life

Straightforward.

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I must have some pent-up energy writing today…oh, well…probably a function of an active inbox today.

But, if you live anywhere near Wall Street and heard massive screaming, garments being torn and saw a distraught Jamie Dimon downing a few shots in the elite bar near the office, here’s why, a bright spot to wrap the week: Sherrod Brown is going to be the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee in 2015, and, in hopeful sign to all middle-class people, Chuck Schumer won’t.

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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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   The forces trying to instill some rollback of the power of the financial elites suffered two defeats yesterday. First, Bernie Sanders’ amendment to bring more scrutiny to the Fed was watered down. Where did the pressure come from to let the Fed continue to operate in the same way it did before the crisis–a […]

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   The issue of trade has sort of receded into the background. Yesterday, though, Sen. Sherrod Brown made clear that he is not thrilled with the Administration’s stance: For too long, our country has followed a Golden Rule trade policy: we treat others as we’d like them to treat us.  That’s a great rule for […]

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   Trade and climate change are closely connected issues. Think just about the carbon emissions of planes and ships traversing the globe carrying stuff that we consume. I’ll come back to that in a sec.    Yesterday, Rep. Mike Michaud of Maine introduced the House version of the TRADE Act; the Senate’s sponsor is Sherrod […]

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Yesterday, I highlighted the rolling out of a very important piece of legislation: the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment Act of 2008 (cleverly, the TRADE Act). So far, the only Senate co-sponsors, who have joined the bill’s sponsor Sherrod Brown, are Byron Dorgan, Russ Feingold, Bob Casey and Sheldon Whitehouse. So, today, it’s worth […]

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    This morning is a time to shake off the cobwebs of conventionitis. Conventionitis is a serious form of mental illness brought on by being cooped up in a climate-controlled atmosphere, where the air you breathe is not real, and the steady hum of many voices conversing at a low pitch combines to penetrate the […]

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    Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of the best legislators in the Congress on just about every issue but certainly on trade, had an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal yesterday that called "Don’t Call Me a Protectionist". Taking on the issue of the so-called "free trade" deal with Colombia, here’s the key passage: Let’s […]

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    Earlier this week, I suggested that, rather than debate the often vague criteria that should drive a super-delegate’s decision on who to support in the Democratic nomination, the uncommitted super-delegates should actually seek a clarification on where candidates stood on issues. I chose trade because I consider that to be the single-most important economic […]

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