Robert Reich: Middle-class consumers won’t and can’t spend because their savings are depleted, their homes are worth a fraction of what they were five years ago, their wages are dropping, and they’re worried about keeping their jobs.
GOP Wages War Against Jobs
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Brent Budowsky: I am a union man, and proud of it. Republicans who wage war against unions and jobs are waging war against American values and prosperity.
Homeland Security Report Ducks Secure Communities Concerns
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Michele Waslin: Reports failed to address serious concerns including racial profiling, the impact on community/police relations, and the deportation of individuals with no criminal background.
Obama Needs Demand-Side Solutions
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Robert Reich: Businesses are reluctant to spend more and create more jobs because there aren’t enough consumers out there able and willing to buy what businesses have to sell.
HSPD12 Employees Wait to See How NASA Responds
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In the wake of an 8-0 setback by the United States Supreme Court last week, the JPL plaintiffs in the HSPD12 case said they would now wait to see what NASA does in response to the decision. In a communication released to the JPL staff today the employees said “The ball is now in NASA’s court.
America’s Two Economies: Why One Is Recovering and the Other Isn’t
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Robert Reich: Inhabitants of the Big Money economy are celebrating Republican wins last week. They figure financial regulations will be rolled back, environmental regulations will be canned, the Bush tax cut will be extended to the top 1 percent, and it will be harder for workers to form unions.
Central Valley Teachers and Parents Criticize Fiorina for Standing with Companies that Ship Jobs Overseas Rather than with California Students
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“These Senators visiting Fresno today don’t seem to care that Carly Fiorina laid off 33,000 Hewlett-Packard employees and now she is offering pink slips to more than 2,700 educators in the Central Valley who help our students learn in the classroom.”
The Great Decoupling of Corporate Profits from Jobs
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Robert Reich: Higher corporate profits no longer lead to higher employment. We’re witnessing a great decoupling of company profits from jobs.
Sarah Palin Tells Bill O’Reilly What She Would Do About Immigration As ‘President Palin’
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Andrea Nill: Palin informed O’Reilly that she would do “whatever it takes” to secure the border, including “militarizing” the border with 10,000-15,000 National Guard troops and building a wall.
Joe Lieberman Is “Unbalanced”
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At the same time, senior Senate aides from both sides of the aisle report that while Lieberman has always been unpredictable and difficult to work with, it’s a trait that became magnified after he lost his primary challenge to Ned Lamont in 2006.
One on One with LAPD Chief-Designate Charlie Beck
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Beck has some big shoes to fill, no doubt, but after meeting and speaking one-on-one with him, I think the LAPD is going to be okay. I wasn’t that sure beforehand, but I can tell you that Beck is, if nothing else, a sincere and humble guy with big ideas, who has a passion for a job in a city that at times is one heartbeat away from a full on race riot.
Policy or Politics? DHS Changes and Expands 287(g) Program
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Nor will these changes matter if they are not properly implemented and monitored. For example, Sheriff Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona, has blatantly stated that he is not interested in being supervised by ICE.
New Jobless Stats: Still “Less Terrible”? Not for Some
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The Lex Column in the Financial Times got it right: “… ‘less down’ is now the new ‘up’ as media watchers search for stabilization in the overall market.” The writer was referring to the world of advertising where some analysts were putting a hopeful spin on revenue that fell 18% over the first three months [...]
Putting a Smiley Face on the Job Picture Can’t Evade the Growing Tragedy
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Michael T. Darda, chief economist at the research and trading firm MKM Partners, probably summed up last week’s message from Washington best, telling the New York Times, “Less bad is always a prelude to good.” The things one learns. We are being asked to believe that the results of the “stress tests” were “not as [...]
Bloomberg Sues The Fed For Disclosure
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by Charley James – Lost in the wake of Henry Paulson’s announcement Wednesday that Treasury is “changing direction” in how it doles out money in the bank rescue plan is a little-noticed lawsuit filed last Friday by Bloomberg LP, the business news wire service. It is suing the Federal Reserve Board’s governors for public records [...]
The Mini Depression and the Maximum-Strength Remedy
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by Robert Reich – This is not the Great Depression of the 1930s, but nor is it turning out to be merely a bad recession of the kind we’ve experienced periodically over the last half century. Call it a Mini Depression.
A Warning to All Mortgage Lenders in California and the Nation
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By Ted W. Lieu — Just like unwary homeowners trapped in unsuitable loans and an ever-increasing mountain of debt, many of our nation’s lenders are facing significant difficulties remaining afloat.
My Conversation with Murtha’s Office
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Last Friday morning, I called Congressman Murtha’s office to communicate my outrage that Murtha, Pelosi, Hoyer and the rest of the House leadership planned to push through another $170-billion dollar Iraq War supplemental, some $70 billion more than Bush requested — all with no timelines or benchmarks or any semblance of accountability or restraint. Murtha’s [...]
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5 Things Napolitano Says Will Provide a Path to Legalization
Requiring undocumented immigrants to register with the government, pay all taxes they owe, and face certain penalties as part of earning legal status is a “tough and fair” path to legalization that’s supported by the majority of voters, not un-endorsed amnesty.