Archive for February, 2010
Security and Order Not the Issue in Haiti (Alternet)
Excellent piece on Haiti by Arun Gupta at Alternet. More Pain for Devastated Haiti: Under the Pretense of Disaster Relief, U.S. Running a Military Occupation The rapid mobilization of U.S troops in Haiti was not primarily done for humanitarian reasons; we’re likely to see a neoliberal economic plan imposed, at gunpoint if necessary. By Arun ...Read more.
CEO-As-Hero on CBS (Labor Notes)
Excellent piece from Labor Notes. The best bit is about how the CEO blathers on this “reality” TV show about his commitment to safety, while in reality at this union-free company, “workers are three times more likely to get killed on the job than firemen, and 60 percent more likely than police officers,” and one ...Read more.
Break Up With Your Big Bank (Bankster)
Here, from Bankster, is another example of anti-big-bank activism, albeit of the PC consumerist sort, that *might* be able to send the biggest banks the message that We Don’t Like Them. Here are the details: FOR VALENTINE’S DAY – BREAK UP WITH YOUR BIG BANK! This Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to end your ...Read more.
Obama's Junk Economics (Michael Hudson)
From Counterpunch:Obama’s Junk Economics Democrats Say “Bye” to Populist Option In a dress rehearsal for this November’s mid-term election, Democrats and Republicans vied last week for who could denounce the banks and blame the other party the most for the giveaways to Wall Street that have swollen the public debt since September 2008, pushing the ...Read more.
The New Deal in Reverse (Steve Fraser)
From TomDispatch, a piece by Steve Fraser criticizin’ Obama’s populist droppin’ of g’s and his inadequate jobs “surge.” Here’s Tom E.’s intro to the piece: From TomDispatch today, a canny and striking comparison between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack Obama that shows how, by the end of their first year in office, they were heading ...Read more.
Elizabeth Warren Calls Out Wall Street
From James Kwak at Baseline Scenario; hat-tip to LF. Although the Consumer Financial Protection Agency made it through the House more or less intact, the banking lobby is taking another, better shot at killing it in the Senate, and is planning to use the magic words: “big government” and “bureaucracy.” Elizabeth Warren wrote an op-ed ...Read more.
Why Aren't There More Radicals at Work?
From the (new?) website, radicalsatwork.org: Works sucks and it’s been getting worse in the U.S. for decades. So why aren’t there more radicals at work? For the first part in a series about radicals and labor today, we asked a dozen radical workplace organizers—teachers, Teamsters, telephone technicians, union organizers, and more—that question. Read what they ...Read more.
Deficit Hawk, Progressive Style, Part II
As I wrote in Part I (Feb 3), the deficit hawks legitimately claim that huge deficits will hinder investment and kill jobs. But their solutions would make matters worse. What are those solutions? What are alternatives? A leading hawk, C. Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, proposes three control measures: containing Medicare ...Read more.
Mixed Jobs Report for January (BLS)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its employment numbers for January. It is a mixed report: the official unemployment rate fell from 10.0% to 9.7%, yet the economy lost 20,000 non-farm jobs. This means that the decline in the rate of unemployment has to do with people who aren’t (fully) employed but aren’t counted ...Read more.
Deficit Hawk, Progressive Style, Part I
As the national debt balloons, the deficit hawks have swooped in again, crying for “fiscal responsibility.” According to C. Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, that means restricting or cutting spending on “entitlements”– Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security–and imposing a national consumption tax. And now President Obama has heard their cries–and proposes ...Read more.
