Working Life

If you needed a quick primer on the downsides of “fast track”–that would be the legislation that allows the executive branch to negotiate trade agreements and, then, submit the deals to the Congress, which can only vote up or down on the whole package…meaning no amendments–this testimony is worth reading.

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Right after the election, I pointed out that the 2006 elections may have signaled the beginning of the end for so-called “free trade.” Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, had a story a few days ago that described how some of the battles are starting to shape up. It’s subscription only but here are a […]

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It keeps popping up since the election: one thing that Republicans are going to push in the lame-duck session of Congress is the so-called “free trade” agreement with Peru. It’s astonishing that the Democrats would let such a deal sail through given the results of the elections. As I pointed out, candidates opposed to so-called […]

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Yes, it was the Iraq War, stupid. But, one of the other issues I kept hearing voters talk about repeatedly for the past several months was the idiocy of so-called “free trade.” And, thankfully, perhaps we can finally declare so-called “free trade” dead. The first thing to say is that what we really would be […]

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Follow me here on a bit of a twisting tale which leads to the following conclusion, albeit, arguable: if the Democrats don’t take back the House and say miss by a seat or two, they can blame themselves for not holding the line against so-called “free trade.” Here’s how I see it. In today’s New […]

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Sometimes, those of us who have continually said so-called “free trade” is a very bad deal for American workers and workers around the globe. NAFTA, for example, has cost about 1 million decent-paying jobs since it was passed, thanks to the Clinton Administration. Here’s a bit more information from the Economic Policy Institute: For a […]

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This Congressional race isn’t in the top-tier of competitive races–it doesn’t even rank in the top 50 races to watch at The Hotline–but it will be interesting to see what happens in the 26th CD in New York. Democrat Jack Davis is running against Republican incumbent Tom Reynolds, who also happens to be the national […]

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There is a growing split within the business community over China–but I think there is something for the forces of good to work on here that might drive a deeper wedge between small business and big business. Business Week reports in its August 14th issue about a growing split among members of the National Maunfactures […]

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Things always seem to get more interesting for Rep. Bill “I Stashed $90,000 In My Freezer” Jefferson. Our man Bill, a member of the dishonored CAFTA 15 and now the Oman 22, was allegedly a bagman for a bribe to a Nigerian politician named Atiku Abubakar, the vice president of Nigeria. As The Washington Post […]

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To our previous dishonorable list of the CAFTA 15 we can now add the Oman 22–the 22 so-called Democrats who just voted for the so-called “free trade” agreement with Oman. Not surprisingly, there is a cross-over between the CAFTA 15 and the Oman 22, and I’ve noted the repeat traitors to the working people of […]

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