News & Comment
Blogs and Opinion
China Currency Shift: Getting Worse More Slowly by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | April 9, 2010
There are rumors that China will let its currency start to rise a tiny bit. China's currency undervalued by up to 40%, which means goods made there have as much as a 40% advantage coming out of the gate, even before their other rulebreaking trade schemes kick in. read more »Is China Trading Fair? CAF v. CATO on CNBC by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | April 8, 2010
Building a Green Economy by Paul Krugman, The New York Times | April 8, 2010
If you listen to climate scientists — and despite the relentless campaign to discredit their work, you should — it is long past time to do something about emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. If we continue with business as usual, they say, we are facing a rise in global temperatures that will be little short of apocalyptic. And to avoid that apocalypse, we have to wean our economy from the use of fossil fuels, coal above all. But is it possible to make drastic cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions without destroying our economy? read more »Happy 75th, WPA: Its Genius Holds Lessons For Today's Jobs Crisis by Mike Elk, OurFuture.org | April 8, 2010
This week marks the 75th anniversary of the Work Progress Administration, the New Deal centerpiece that helped end the Great Depression by directly creating 3.3 million jobs. As we have just experienced the steepest job losses since then, let’s take a moment to remind ourselves the economic lessons we learned from that historic program. read more »Lumbering Towards A Greater Depression by Natasha Chart, OurFuture.org | April 8, 2010
There's a term for what the trade policies now practiced by the Chinese government, practices that Dave Johnson correctly noted are hurting the whole world's economy for what will ultimately prove to be a temporary advantage for China if the economies of their trading partners should more fully collapse: "beggar thy neighbor." read more »Understanding Why The China Currency Issue Matters by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | April 7, 2010
China has been very smart about looking out for its own interests. read more »The Last Factory in America by Gilbert B. Kaplan, Huffington Post | April 7, 2010
The Sociopaths Who Make Federal Energy, Work Safety Policies by Natasha Chart, OurFuture.org | April 6, 2010
One of the hardest things about training people for combat is that human beings are normally strongly averse, to put it mildly, to killing each other, or even being indirectly responsible for someone's death. read more »Trading Jobs For Diplomacy? by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | April 6, 2010
The Obama administration appears to have backed off from pressuring China to revalue its currency, for now, likely in exchange for diplomatic concessions including helping to pressure Iran on nukes. Chinese currency revaluation is about jobs, because currently China enjoys a competitive head start of up to 40% lower prices because they are keeping their currency too low. read more »Peterson Deficit Summit To Examine, Recommend Latest 'Soak The Poor' Policies by Natasha Chart, OurFuture.org | April 6, 2010
This just in, yesterday: the pro-aristocracy Peter G. Peterson foundation is holding a deficit summit in Washington, DC, to highlight the terrible dangers of the government spending money in a recession. Or, mostly, to provide cover for corporate-friendly politicians who want to help their friends in the finance industry and starve the government of the resources, both political and material, needed to end regulatory capture. read more »
The Latest
Smoother Ride for Auto-Parts Makers , The Wall Street Journal | August 4, 2010
A year ago the U.S. auto-supplier industry was all but left for dead. Companies such as Lear Corp. were filing for bankruptcy, demand for parts was plummeting and investors were abandoning the sector as General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC grappled with Chapter 11 reorganizations. read more »
U.S. To Train 3,000 Offshore IT Workers , informationweek.com | August 4, 2010
Despite President Obama's pledge to retain more hi-tech jobs in the U.S., a federal agency run by a hand-picked Obama appointee has launched a $22 million program to train workers, including 3,000 specialists in IT and related functions, in South Asia. read more »
New Democratic Strategy for Creating Jobs Focuses on a Boost in Manufacturing, The Washington Post | August 4, 2010
When Jobs Go Away for Good, stateline.org | August 3, 2010
99 Weeks Later, Jobless Have Only Desperation, The New York Times | August 3, 2010
Ms. Jarrin, 49, wound up at a motel here, putting down $260 she had managed to scrape together from friends and from selling her living room set, enough for a weeklong stay. It was essentially all the money she had left after her unemployment benefits expired in March. read more »
Will The GOP Senators Whose States Face Thousands Of Teacher Layoffs Vote Against Teacher Funding? , wonkroom.thinkprogress.org | August 3, 2010
Today, the Senate will be taking a procedural vote on a bill providing $26 billion in aid to state and local governments, $10 billion of which is dedicated to preventing teacher layoffs. This particular batch of funding has been included in, and then cut from, multiple bills, as each time conservatives have objected. read more »
Budget Woes Snare State Aid Bill, dyn.politico.com | August 3, 2010
While scrambling to save pre-election jobs assistance, Senate Democrats are quietly conceding that Republicans have already won and big swaths of President Barack Obama’s 2011 budget will be cut when Congress returns after its summer recess. read more »
Few in U.S. Move For New Jobs, Fueling Fear the Economy Might Get Stuck, Too, The Washington Post | July 30, 2010
Labor mobility has nearly ground to a halt in the past two years, and policymakers are increasingly worried that the slowdown is not just a symptom of the nation's economic struggles but also a barrier to overcoming them. read more »
Netroots Nation: Channeling the Power of Jobs, Populism and the Angry Voter, blog.aflcio.org | July 23, 2010
Where does populist anger over the economy go—left or right? It’s a question Working America has focused a great deal on as it relates to both policy and politics, in our discussions of a “working class at the tipping point,” in our daily work and as it relates specifically to this fall’s elections. This morning, a Netroots Nation panel also took up the question. read more »
Checks are Coming: Obama Signs Unemployment Bill, salon.com | July 23, 2010
Federal checks could begin flowing again as early as next week to millions of jobless people who lost up to seven weeks of unemployment benefits in a congressional standoff. read more »
