Working Life

I have always thought there is a huge gap between economists and numbers’ crunchers versus the reality-based world of workers. But, in the midst of the current economic crisis, it seems to me that the entire way we talk about "recessions" needs to be thrown out the window. It simply does not measure, and obscures, […]

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Yesterday, I wrote about how the decline of U.S. wages has made workers here cheaper to hire than workers in India, at least in the call center industry. Today, the news hails from Asia where workers are rising up against poverty-level wages.   From the Financial Times (and, as a side observation, the FT gives […]

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   This is the news today: U.S. consumer spending was flat in June as incomes stopped growing and prices remained subdued, pointing to a weaker economy.    But, that should not be a surprise. Which makes this very curious:    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said rising wages would probably spur household spending in […]

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    If it wasn’t so tragic, I’d be laughing until my belly hurt at the hand-wringing about the shaky nature of the economy. I’ve been saying this for many months, particularly every time I’ve seen the foolish predictions of the recovery around the corner. So, now, the stock market has a deep drop and people […]

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   There is a lot of talking about the coming debt burden on companies: Maybe they should have, because 2012 also is the beginning of a three-year period in which more than $700 billion in risky, high-yield corporate debt begins to come due, an extraordinary surge that some analysts fear could overload the debt markets. […]

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   Conventional wisdom–along with a great dose of greed and blind faith in a failed economic model–caused the immediate economic crisis we are still deeply mired in. Every day, brings another does of conventional wisdom. Here is one from The Wall Street Journal: U.S. household wealth fell by $14 trillion during the recession, sapping confidence […]

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   Yours truly is the new owner of an IPhone but this is not a discussion of the pros and cons of the device (the jury is still out). But, the cool company has got some issues about the treatment of its workers: The Cupertino, Calif., company, in a report posted to its Web site, […]

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   I do not like to be negative. I’m actually quite the optimist, generally speaking. So, I admit to feeling uneasy that I’ve been presistently, regularly disbelieving about the talk of "economic recovery". I think that such talk ignores the actual FACTS and is largely driven by political imperatives–meaning, politicians who want to be re-elected […]

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We are being distracted by numbers that are a sideshow. The new Gross Domestic Product numbers and the obsession about the fiscal deficits are obscuring the real problem in America–wages.   Yes, we have a massive jobs crisis. I have been pretty clearly supporting the idea that we need far bigger stimulus and that the […]

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Solidarity is one of the bedrock principles of the labor movement. It has a pretty sound strategic and tactical basis: you can’t win if your ranks are divided. I don’t mean that you can’t have debate. I mean that we have to support certain general principles. Here is an example: public employees are not to […]

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