Working Life

   Not a happy day for auto workers–and, frankly, for workers everywhere. The UAW, as most of you know by now, has agreed to new concessions to try to save the auto companies. From The Wall Street Journal: Two weeks after insisting his union had already done enough to help the car makers, UAW President […]

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   Well, duh. We needed a group of economists to tell us what we already know and felt for a long time. And you have to wonder: were they asleep since it took them until now to tell us that, by their reckoning, the recession began a year ago. From the Financial Times: Evidence of […]

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   Even though I’ve suggested that auto workers should not pay for the mistakes made by the industry’s executives, the drumbeat has been pretty persistent that the workers will take another hit. And it picks up in today’s New York Times: While the union has not agreed to reopen contracts at General Motors, Ford and […]

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   Later today, the International Labor Organization will release a sweeping report on global wages. I’ve got a copy and here is the upshot: wages declined in most countries, inequality increase and, thank you very much, a lot of that can be blamed on the wonders of so-called "free trade".   The ILO is an […]

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Memo to the traditional media: you want to see the auto industry go down? Fine. But, at least try to give the facts about what workers have undergone in the industry–an assignment that most of the traditional media could not live up in its coverage of yesterday’s hearings on the proposed bailout.   The facts […]

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    Yesterday, I posted a dairy about the right way to bailout the auto industry. I have no issue with those people who disagree with the basic premise that we should bailout the companies. But, in other places where I posted this and generally out there in the ether, there was a shocking level of […]

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   Regular readers know that I have been pointing out that the next shoe to drop will be a wave of bankruptcies that erupt because consumers have no more money to spend. Well, here we go: First came the mortgage crisis. Now comes the credit card crisis. After years of flooding Americans with credit card […]

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   One of the great lies that Wal-Mart perpetrates on our national debate is that it is a paragon of the so-called "free market". In truth, Wal-Mart’s model of low wages and cheap prices could not survive without broad government support, not the least of which is health care.   You see, most Wal-Mart workers […]

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   It’s enlightening to read the economic data popping out from the various number crunchers. Guess what? Productivity climbed beyond anyone’s expectations, according to this story on The Wall Street Journal’s website this morning: Nonfarm business productivity jumped 4.3%, at an annual rate, in the second quarter, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s almost double […]

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Well, it never gets old–watching the reality unfold that contradicts what the blind advocates of so-called "free trade" and "liberalization" want people to believe. One of the great lies of the globalization scam is that, hey, don’t worry, if we just educate people more and have them do higher-skilled jobs, not to worry, everyone will […]

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