Carl Matthes: Obama kicked public awareness/acceptance of marriage equality into high gear. The covers of the nation’s major magazines competed for which could best portray Obama’s historic announcement.
They’d Like to “Occupy” Their Own Homes
By
Paulina Gonzalez: House by house, block by block, the residents of these South Central neighborhoods are being pushed out by landlords eager to capitalize on USC’s expansion.
Reimagining Capitalism: An End to Mythologies
By
John Peeler: The economy, like the polity, ought to be democratically controlled. Democracy should operate at the level of the firm as well as the community: employees should be owners.
A Few Words about Philanthropy
By
In 2005, more than one in every four adults reported doing some volunteer work. I don’t know exactly what definition was used. Chances are that coaching your kid’s soccer team counted.
The President’s Job’s Initiative Doesn’t Measure Up
By
No president in modern times walks a tightrope as exquisitely as this one. His balance is a thing of beauty. But when it comes to this economy right now — an economy fundamentally out of balance — we need a federal government that moves boldly and swiftly to counter-balance the huge recessionary forces still at large
Weekend Mysteries, Scandals, and Speculations
By
The nation’s unemployment rate is at 10.2 percent, a 26-year high. These people will be waiting to hear Obama explain how adding to the $10 billion monthly price tag for Iraq and Afghanistan will help them find work. African American men, 17.1 percent of whom are unemployed, want a word from Obama on this,” wrote Columnist Colbert King in the Washington Post last week.
Worrisome Thoughts on the Way to the Jobs Summit
By
But the reality that no one wants to talk about is a structural change in the economy that’s been going on for years but which the Great Recession has dramatically accelerated.
The Housing Crisis and Wall Street Shame
By
The $75 billion federal program designed to bribe banks to modify mortgages has been a bust. No one knows the exact number of mortgages that have been modified (that will be reported next month) but housing experts I’ve talked with say it’s a tiny fraction of the number of homeowners in trouble. Seems that the big banks can’t be bothered.
Retail Wars, Urban Sores: A New Jobs Project
By
If we can defend democracy overseas we can rebuild our decaying Main Streets. This could be a building stimulus project both political parties could respect if we see it as a restoration after a retail business war.
Goldman Sachs’ $500 Million Mea Culpa
By
This institution deserves the full force of anti-trust law deployed against it. Maybe in open court we’ll get a glimpse into the real workings of this unworthy amalgam of greed and arrogance.
Once Again on the President, the Congress, and the Jobless
By
As we note, the heightened attention to the crisis, and hopefully proposals for Congressional action, the alarming jobless figures will be repeated over and over. The employment situation is dire and from all indications it is going to get worse.
The Great Disconnect Between Stocks and Jobs
By
In the Great Recession of 2008-2009, companies are going a step further. They’re using this sharp downturn to cut payrolls even below where they were when times were good. Outsourcing abroad, setting up shop in China and elsewhere, contracting out, replacing people with software and automated machines – they’re doing whatever it takes to get payrolls down so earnings bounce up.
Obama, China, and Wishful Thinking About American Jobs
By
The dirty little secret on both sides of the Pacific is that both America and China are capable of producing far more than their own consumers are capable of buying. In the U.S., the root of the problem is a growing share of total income going to the richest Americans, leaving the middle class with relatively less purchasing power unless they go deep into debt.
Think First About the Unemployed, Not the Politicians … and Act
By
What’s happening to the lives of the legions out of work – particularly the young men and women – has to take second place to the fortune of the President and his party. The human crisis would be real regardless of who is in the Oval Office and is what should move the President and the Congress to do the right thing.
How Obama Can Convince Congress to Enact a Larger Stimulus, and Why He Must
By
The Administration’s biggest economic mistake so far was to badly underestimate last January how bad the employment situation would become by Fall. As a result, it low-balled the stimulus — settling for a plan that, while avoiding even worse job losses, didn’t go nearly far enough.
Health Care Reform Is Critically Important, But Getting Americans Back to Work Is More So
By
If Obama and the Democrats lose one or both houses of Congress in the midterms, it will be because the president learned only the most superficial lesson of the Clinton years. Health-care reform is critically important. But when one out of six Americans is unemployed or underemployed, getting the nation back to work is more so.
Too Big to Fail: Why the White House and Congress Won’t Break up the Big Banks
By
The right idea is to break up the giant banks. I don’t often agree with Alan Greenspan but he was right when he said last week that “[i]f they’re too big to fail, they’re too big.”
Small Farmers Fight Land Theft in Colombia
By
Much of what has happened in Colombia in the past 20 years is the violent theft of land, a major reason why Colombia has the second highest number of internally displaced people in the world.
Why Wall Street Reform Is Stuck in Reverse
By
Executives and traders on the Street have become the single biggest sources of money for Democrats as well as Republicans. And with mid-term elections looming next year, you can bet every member of Congress has a glint in his or her eye directed at the Street.
The Despair of Childcare
By
Organizations like Moms Rising are fighting to raise awareness about a number of issues that make the industrialized United States seem like an anachronism compared to its counterparts. Excellence in childcare is on the agenda
Why the Dow Broke 10,000, and Why You Should Still Watch Your Wallet
By
Anyone who hasn’t learned by now that there’s almost no relationship between the Dow and the real economy deserves to lose his or her shirt in the Wall Street casino.
Specifically, What Should Be Done for Jobs?
By
It would be hard to get a new stimulus package through Congress, but no member who’s up for reelection next year when unemployment is likely to be in double digits wants to be accused by rivals of voting against steps to help small businesses, public schools, childrens’ health, and average working people who need a tax cut.
The Truth About Jobs That No One Wants to Tell You
By
In other words, ten percent unemployment really means twenty percent underemployment or anxious employment. All of which translates directly into late payments on mortgages, credit cards, auto and student loans, and loss of health insurance.
Why the Dow is Hitting 10,000 Even When Consumers Can’t Buy And Business Cries “Socialism”
By
The Dow is up despite the biggest consumer retreat from the market since the Great Depression because of the very thing so many executives are complaining about, which is government’s expansion.
The Continuing Disaster of Wall Street, One Year Later
By
Let’s be clear: Wall Street today is up to the same tricks it was playing before its near-death experience: Derivatives, derivatives of derivatives, fancy-dance trading schemes, high-risk bets. “Our model really never changed, we’ve said very consistently that our business model remained the same,” says Goldman Sach’s chief financial officer.
Goodbye Luis, Welcome to the Jobless Ranks
By
Job cuts in August were lower than they’ve been in recent months. But a deeper look at the data shows why it will take millions of new jobs to dig American workers out of this recession’s deep pit.
The Real News About Jobs and Wages: An Ode to Labor Day
By
If we’ve learned anything from the Great Recession-Mini Depression of the last 18 months, it’s that the skewing of income and wealth to the top has made our economy far less stable.
Don’t Succumb to Deficit Hysteria
By
The only item worth looking at is the part of the report that predicts the government will have nearly a $1.6 trillion deficit in the fiscal year that ends this September 30 — but not because that number is alarmingly large. It strikes me as alarmingly small.
Obama’s Second Biggest Test: Reforming Wall Street, and Why Early Indications Aren’t Hopeful
By
itigroup — the giant Wall Street bank still on life-support courtesy of $45 billion from American taxpayers — wants to pay its 25 top executives an average of $10 million each this year, and award its best trader $100 million. Whaaaaaat?
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Recent Comments