Robert Reich: During periods when the very rich took home a much smaller proportion of total income — as in the Great Prosperity between 1947 and 1977 — the nation as a whole grew faster and median wages surged.
Immigrant Laborers Strengthen American Workforce, Economy
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Michele Waslin: While immigration restrictionists have long tried to demonize immigrant workers and blame them for high unemployment rates and other economic woes, the facts make it clear that immigrants actually create jobs and businesses and boost the wages of native-born workers.
Immigrant Entrepreneurs Leaving the U.S.
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Michele Waslin: Immigrants can start new businesses here, but they’re doing it somewhere else in recent years due to our complicated and dysfunctional immigration system.
The Devil Is in the “Debt”
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Ira Chernus: When Republicans gather for their national convention in 2012, they’ll have to decide whether to imitate the Democrats of 1932 and focus on social issues — which are, to so many, issues of sin — or on the dollars and cents of the debt.
Racism in Review, A Look Back and a Look Ahead
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Jessie Daniels: Amid all the racist flame throwing of 2010, politicians managed to achieve a bipartisan consensus when it came to one boogeyman. China-bashing profilerated on both sides of the aisle as candidates blamed the ascendant superpower for America’s economic woes
Economic “Recovery?” Not for You and Me
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Jim Fuller: The essential hidden fact of economics in 21st century America: What we have is exactly what the tiny economic elite, the one or two percent of richest Americans, wants us to have.
A Modest Proposal: “Give Arizona Back to Mexico”
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John Delloro: Giving back Arizona may potentially jumpstart our economy and stimulate our national imagination towards creating a greater common vision. If returning Arizona to Mexico doesn’t work, we can always revisit and adapt Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal” and sell and consume undocumented immigrants as food in the ultimate and most seamless form of assimilation into the body politic of the US.
Schwarzenegger Affirms That Undocumented Immigrants Are Not To Blame For California’s Economic Woes
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Andrea Christina Nill: A study by Manuel Pastor of the University of Southern California found that immigration reform would increase California’s “state and local tax base by about $350 million in the short run.” A separate study by Raul Hinojosa of the University of California, Los Angeles similarly found that immigration reform which includes a path legalization could generate at least $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years.
Niello Sponsors a Whine-Fest for Business, As Usual.
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Adam Eran: Niello’s hearing is yet another bit of evidence that, no matter what the facts, the Republican narrative remains constant: We must reduce taxes and regulation, even if lack of effective regulation produced the current less-than-optimum outcome. And although “deficits don’t matter,” no matter how low they are, taxes are too high, especially on the wealthy.
What Obama Is Doing Wrong
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Judith Apter Klinghoffer: Obama is using Chicago-style strong-arm techniques at home, while kowtowing to kings and dictators abroad. To forestall big Democratic loses in the 2010 elections, he will have to reverse tactics.
A Progressive Challenge to Jane Harman
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There are many reasons why progressives will mobilize behind the campaign of Marcy Winograd, who announced on Monday that she’ll challenge incumbent Congresswoman Jane Harman in the 2010 Democratic primary. Some will speak of Harman’s pro-war record. Some will recall her support for warrantless wiretapping, followed by her irony-free indignation when it turned out that [...]
New Americans: A Springboard for California’s Economy
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Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported that analysts across the country have been worried that the economic crisis has fueled an increase in hate groups and racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric. With its large immigrant population and current economic woes, California is in the belly of the beast. Yet, while many restrictionists and anti-immigrant groups are [...]
Nuttin’ for Christmas
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by David L. Brewer III and Scott Folsom – A week ago Friday and again last Monday the Governor called for a state budget to be out of the legislature and on his desk by Christmas; Christmas was last Thursday. It is now almost New Years and no budget.
Turning Red Districts Blue: Will Linda Jones’s Stealth Campaign Surprise the Antelope Valley?
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The remorseless Santa Anas that whistle across the Antelope Valley teach residents of Palmdale, Riverside, Victorville, and surrounding communities all there is to know about high desert winds. But this November, those same folks might get to know a different kind of wind—one that could blow a Democrat into statewide office to represent their district [...]
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This Jobs Crisis Is Obama’s Kryptonite
David Love: Obama can solve this whole thing tomorrow if he just calls for a new New Deal program already. But will he have the courage? Time will tell, but the President, like this sad nation, is short on time.