Richard Mathews: It is time for an update to the list of Obama accomplishments. This is based on an older list by David Phillips and a recent one by Obama WILL Be ReElected In 2012.
Capitalism’s Two-Step Survival Plan: Austerity and Structural Reform
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Shamus Cooke: The coast is clear, the media tells us; economic disaster has been averted. The Euro Zone is finally stable and the U.S. economy is recovering. Whew! Why, then, are government policies internationally still pursuing extremist measures?
Suddenly Homeless: Kids With No Roof
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Charley James: Homeless children not only are robbed of their childhood but also suffer at school so their situation is likely to affect them the rest of their lives.
Ben Bernanke, Bill’s Daughters and the Fed’s “Hard Won Credibility”
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Charley James: Chairman Bernanke may well be boxed in by the Fed’s much-to-cautious ruling board of bank presidents but there’s no reason why he cannot use his very public platform to jawbone the governors into action.
Mission Impossible: Finding a Mini-Van Made in America by Union Workers
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Walter Brasch: We can wave flags and tell everyone how much more patriotic we are than them, but we still can’t buy a minivan made in America by unionized workers—even when the price is lower than that of the non-unionized competition.
Doing My Taxes
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Steve Hochstadt: Polls showed that only 4% of filers do file taxes the way I do, with pencil and paper and a calculator. Most people use some tax software and file electronically.
A Vote for Newt, Willard, and Chums Is a Vote Against the Unemployed
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Julie Driscoll: In their zeal to see that President Obama is a one-term president, it does not behoove Republicans to roll out anything that would actually improve the economic outlook for the unemployed. They barely pay lip service to it.
Bank of America’s Cut of Unemployment Checks
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Leonard Isenberg: Did it really have to be so difficult or was this just a hidden incentive to debit card users to let the money just sit on the debit card, where B of A could continue making the float interest?
Obama’s Bold Jobs Bill (Maybe)
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Robert Reich: A bold jobs plan is also good politics. With more than 25 million Americans looking for full-time jobs, the wages of people with jobs falling, and an economy on the verge of a double dip, the President has to come out fighting on the side of average people.
Well-To-Do Americans Getting More Benefits than the Poor
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Sherwood Ross: All the Federal welfare checks, food stamps, and unemployment benefits don’t begin to add up to the more than $1 trillion in indirect tax breaks awarded annually to America’s middle- and upper-classes.
Why Obama Can’t Pivot to Jobs
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Robert Reich: The nation and Oba,ma remain hostage to the ideology of right-wing Republicans who won’t let the government spend more money. Yet if the government can’t spend more – at least this year and next, until the pump is primed and the economy is growing again – we won’t see job growth. And without job growth, the economy will remain anemic.
An Anti-Government Challenge
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Richard M. Mathews: Unless you are wearing 100% cotton made on the plantation you have had in the family for generations without the benefit of outside seed or fertilizer, the clothes have got to go.
Vicious Cycles: Why Washington Is About to Make the Jobs Crisis Worse
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Robert Reich: The only way out of the vicious economic cycle is for government to adopt an expansionary fiscal policy — spending more in the short term in order to make up for the shortfall in consumer demand.
For Obama Defenders, Words Speak Louder Than Actions
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Randy Shaw: Obama’s history includes many great speeches advocating for “change we can believe in,” but as even his most fervid admirers acknowledge, his governance has been quite different.
The Forgotten Jobless and Our Future
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Mark Vorpahl: As in the 1930s, today we must organize in a way that creates unity between the employed and unemployed. To start, we can organize the largest possible union-led demonstrations to realize this unity in the streets.
The Real Deficits
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Lydia Howell: A brutal reality is undeniable in the fight over the Bush-era tax cuts and expiring unemployment benefits: American democracy isn’t working for everyday people — that is, the non-wealthy.
The American Jobs Emergency Requires Action
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Robert Reich: Not only do we need extended unemployment benefits. We need a new WPA, modeled after the WPA of the Great Depression, to put jobless Americans to work. We need a national infrastructure bank to rebuild our crumbling highways and water and sewer systems, thereby putting additional people back to work.
Alarmed & Angry at Christmas Time
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Carl Bloice: Reflect on the sudden, shocking awareness that that one third of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives are prepared to let 2 million people – victims of an economic crisis not of their making – face the holidays with no income.
With Federal Benefits Set to Expire, Unemployed Workers Face Shrinking Safety Net
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Marian Wang: Not extending federal unemployment insurance, it noted, would cause 2 million unemployed workers to be cut off from federal unemployment benefits by the end of the year.
National Fiscal Hypocrisy Week
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Robert Reich: The best outcome would be an agreement to extend the tax cuts for the bottom 99 percent, for two years. This would stimulate the economy in the short term when it most needs it, and reduce the long-term deficit.
Banks, Bankers and Hedge Funds Robbing Us Dumb And Blind
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Jim Fuller: Americans have shut their eyes and their minds to the fact that they’ve been robbed; bankers, brokers and hedge fund managers continue to live high and to receive public respect, if not adulation.
Unless Congress Acts, A Bleak Holiday Season for Millions
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Carl Bloice: If Congress does not vote over the next week and a half to re-authorize federal unemployment benefits through next year, before they expire November 30, nearly 2 million women and men and their families will face a dismal holiday season.
Why the Lame Duck Congress Must Extend Jobless Benefits For Hard-Hit Families But Not Tax Cuts For the Rich
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Robert Reich: Don’t extend the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy. Give unemployment benefits to people who need them.
Amazing Germany’s Declining Unemployment: How Do They Do It?
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Steve Hill: the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel not only pursued different economic policies than the Obama administration, but Germany also has a greater degree of economic democracy than the U.S.
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