Robert Reich: I wish President Obama and the Democrats would explain to the nation that the federal budget deficit isn’t the nation’s major economic problem and deficit reduction shouldn’t be our major goal.
Greece Economy 2012: Why U.S. Politicians Are Quiet About Europe’s Meltdown
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Shamus Cooke: Working people in the U.S. need to learn to speak Greek, and adopt an increasingly popular slogan that rejects austerity measures: Tax the Rich!
The Stall Has Arrived
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Robert Reich: @idening inequality is the underlying culprit. As long as almost all the gains from economic growth continue to go to the top, the vast middle class doesn’t have the purchasing power to boost the economy on its own.
Can Capitalist Cultures Become More Humane?
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Walter Moss: The capitalist cultures of corporations and other capitalist institutions can become more humane. Whether they will or not is another question.
What’s the Economy for Anyway?
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Robert Reich: The biggest problem is that corporate money is undermining democratic institutions in the name of better deals for consumers and investors.
President Obama’s Osawatomie, Kansas Stemwinder
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President Barack Obama: I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules.
How More Recycling Could Boost the Economy
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Sabrina Bornstein: Recycling may be all the rage these days, but here in L.A. and across the country vast amounts of recyclable goods end up in landfills every year.
Stop the Austerity Train Wreck!
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Robert Reich: Agreement or not, Washington is on the road to making budget cuts that will slow the economy, increase unemployment, and impose additional hardship on millions of Americans.
Governor Jerry Brown Signs Immigration Bills that Help, Not Hurt, California’s Economy
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Seth Hoy: With an increasing unemployment rate of more than 12%, California legislators concluded that it “must pursue all avenues in facilitating and incubating job development and economic growth.”
Can Republicans Cure the Jobs Crisis?
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Steve Hochstadt: Republicans believe that continuing high unemployment will bring Obama down, so they want to preserve what they feel is their winning card: a bad economy.
History and Double-Dip Recessions
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Iwan Morgan: If America does manage to avoid a new recession and achieve stronger growth, it will be a testimony to the underlying strength of its economy. At present its political leadership in both the executive and legislative branches does not appear to have the same reserves.
The Moral Question
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Robert Reich: The appropriation bill the House passed June 16 would deny benefits to more than 700,000 eligible low-income women and young children next year. What kind of country are we living in?
The Zero Economy
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Robert Reich: Every time you hear anyone say we’re “broke” or “can’t afford to spend more,” tell them we’ll be in worse shape if we don’t. If the economy remains dead in the water, the ratio of public debt to GDP balloons.
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.
The Costs of War
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Vijay Prashad: The drain of wealth to the war economy is a massive regressive taxation on the population: the rich who pay a much smaller proportion of their taxes and the corporations are insulated from the costs of war, and indeed some of them benefit from the windfalls of war.
Lost Decade?
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John Peeler: One of the most striking features of our current global economic morass is that many Third World economies are weathering the crisis rather well, while the supposed leaders of the world economy (the United States, the European Union, the Japanese) are in deep trouble that looks to get deeper.
Reimagining Capitalism: An End to Mythologies
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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.
July 4 Infamy: Republicans Try to Destroy America’s Economy
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Brent Budowsky: On this July 4 the Republican Party is divided between the hope America fails Republicans, who appear to actively want joblessness to rise to seek political gain, and the radical Republicans who adore Ayn Rand.
Republican War on Worker Rights Undermines Economy
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Robert Reich: The only way back toward sustained growth and prosperity in the United States is to remake the basic bargain linking pay to productivity. This would give the American middle class the purchasing power they need to keep the economy going.
The Rich Are Destroying the Economy
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Shamus Cooke: Because both parties simply threw money at the banks and hedge funds instead of punishing them, a condition of “moral hazard” was created, meaning, that banks would assume another bailout would come their way if they destroyed the economy again — too big too fail, remember?
The Next Global Crash
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Brent Budowsky: Make no mistake: If the debt ceiling is not extended and America goes into default, markets and economies around the world will probably crash.
Double Dip Here We Come
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Republicans, for their part, worry that if they tell it like it is Americans will want government to do more rather than less. They’d rather not talk about jobs and wages, and put the focus instead on deficit reduction (or spread the lie that by reducing the deficit we’ll get more jobs and higher wages).
Municipal Bankruptcy Threatens Workers, Communities…
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Caitlin Vega: The same people who want to make personal bankruptcy impossible now want state and local governments to use it strategically to screw workers.
Wall Street’s Birthday Nothing to Crow About
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Robert Reich: Happy Birthday Wall Street. Party away. Just know that most Americans aren’t joining the celebration.
States Playing with Enforcement-Only Fire Likely to Get Burned
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Seth Hoy: Perhaps if state lawmakers listened to their constituents and considered the economic consequences, they might realize that playing with enforcement-only immigration is a surefire way to burn down your state’s economy.
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Friday Feedback: What’s the Economy for Anyway?
This week, Joe Weinstein, one of our most prolific and thoughtful commentators, addresses Robert Reich’s “What’s the Economy for Anyway?”