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Even The Chamber of Commerce is Critical of Chinese Currency Manipulation by Mike Elk, OurFuture.org | March 22, 2010
Last week, I wrote about the growing bipartisan consensus to confront China on its illegal currency manipulation. read more »China's Coming Surprise Announcement And My Bridge On eBay by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | March 22, 2010
On April 15 the Obama administration is required to officially declare whether China is manipulating its currency. SInce China is manipulating its currency there is a great deal of pressure on the administration to say so. read more »Stifling the Economy, One Argument at a Time by ROBERT E. LIGHTHIZER, The New York Times | March 22, 2010
FRUSTRATED with years of delay and stonewalling, 130 members of Congress last week urged the Obama administration to punish China for manipulating the value of its currency to the detriment of American exports. But this issue does not stand alone; it is part of the larger, murkier world of international trade policy, centered on the Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations. These talks, which began in 2001, long ago became a quagmire. read more »China's "Human Face" on Opposition to a Higher Yuan by Dean Baker, prospect.org | March 22, 2010
According to USA Today, China's government tried to put a "human face" on its opposition to raising the value of the yuan by presenting the case of a small business owner who is worried that he will lose his workers to better paying employers if the yuan rises in value. Of course, this is not exactly how the situation was described. read more »Last Flatware Factory In U.S. To Close by Natasha Chart, OurFuture.org | March 22, 2010
There's only one flatware factory left in the US, a former Oneida plant bought by Sherrill Manufacturing. In spite of the fact that there's a brisk market in flatware in the US, and that the facility is highly productive and state-of-the-art, the plant will be closed and 80 workers laid off. read more »The Senate Energy Bill's Other Shoe by Natasha Chart, OurFuture.org | March 19, 2010
So yesterday I looked on the bright side of the Senate's clean energy bill and proclaimed my delight that there is such a thing. Though naturally, this is not the whole story. read more »NUMMI Closing - Resignation by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | March 19, 2010
The other day I wrote about the huge impact from California's Toyota NUMMI plant closing, Toyota takes off with a ton of cash, we pay the costs, it's the way the system is set up -- by us. read more »China to US: We're Just "Emotionally Unavailable" by Mike Elk, OurFuture.org | March 19, 2010
Man China has had a really rough week. A bipartisan group of economists ranging from Paul Krugman to the conservative Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute have called for tariffs on China to fix the currency manipulation problem. read more »Financial Reform: It’s the Derivatives, Stupid. by Leo Gerard, OurFuture.org | March 19, 2010
Tricky auto loans didn't cause the financial meltdown on Wall Street. Unscrupulous payday lenders didn't cost taxpayers a $700 billion "troubled asset" bailout. So fussing about whether U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's financial reform legislation contains an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency is like worrying about whether you'll lose your tool shed as a conflagration consumes your home. read more »China: World's Biggest Bubble? by Andy Kroll, Mother Jones | March 18, 2010
Is China, soon to surpass Japan as the world's second-largest economy, a massive, dangerous bubble? According to one man who's witnessed financial calamity at close range, the answer is an unabashed Yes. "As I see it, it is the greatest bubble in history with the most massive misallocation of wealth," said James Rickards at a recent conference in China, according to Bloomberg News. Rickards is the former counsel for the infamous hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management, an all-star, Nobel Prize-powered fund that proceeded to melt down in 1998 and almost drag the global economy down with it. (For more on LTCM, read Kevin Drum's "Capital City" cover story.) Whether his role helping save LTCM burnishes or blemishes his record is for you to decide, but his time there clearly colors his view of China today. Bloomberg reported that Rickards argued that "Chinese central bank’s balance sheet resembles that of a hedge fund buying dollars and short-selling the yuan." Echoing Rickards, a recent World Bank report warned of inflation and a property bubble in China. (Here's a PDF of the report's overview.) The World Bank suggested that China tighten up its overall monetary policy by raising interest rates to contain a housing bubble—something, you'll remember, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and current chair Ben Bernanke failed to do.) To be sure, there are some startling parallels between China's housing boom and the US' bubble circa 2003-2007. There's the economics—$560 billion of real estate was sold in China last year, the Times reported recently, an 80 percent increase from 2008—and the blinding details, too, like the home with crocodile skin bedposts and doors inlaid with Swarovski diamonds. Or the anonymous investor in Shanghai who bought 54 apartments in a single day. Or the $3 billion "floating city" in the north of China. The key question here is whether China's in a boom or inflating a bubble—and without a Chinese version of, say, the Case-Shiller housing index, it's hard to decipher what exactly is going on in the Middle Kingdom. read more »
The Latest
GOP: No More Help for Jobless, But Rich Must Keep Tax Cuts, mcclatchydc.com | July 15, 2010
Republicans almost unanimously oppose spending $33.9 billion for extended unemployment benefits for some 2.5 million people who've lost them, because they say it would increase federal budget deficits. read more »
Kyl: Unemployment Insurance A 'Necessary Evil' , Huffington Post | July 13, 2010
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday that tax cuts for the wealthy shouldn't be offset by revenue increases elsewhere because their purpose is to shrink the size of government, fleshing out an argument he made on Sunday. read more »
Just Don't Like the Unemployed, Cont'd, Washington Monthly | July 13, 2010
I've been marveling in recent months at the ways in which Republican lawmakers and candidates seem to actively dislike -- on a personal level -- those who've lost their jobs in the recession. It's kind of odd, given that the unemployed don't seem to have done anything to offend the GOP and earn the party's disdain. read more »
Retire at Age 70? Young People May Have to Under Proposed Plans , truth-out.org | July 12, 2010
Young Americans might not get full Social Security retirement benefits until they reach age 70 if some trial balloons that prominent lawmakers of both parties are floating become law. read more »
Grow Green Jobs, ourfuture.org | July 12, 2010
Why not address both problems with a major public program to directly put people to work saving energy?
Plenty of green-job advocates have offered practical details, including my University of Massachusetts colleague, Robert Pollin. Yet no one in Congress or the White House seems willing to plant this garden. read more »
Putting America Back to Work with Green Jobs, thedailygreen.com | July 12, 2010
The phrase "building a green economy" means different things to different people, but in general it refers to encouraging economic development that prioritizes sustainability--that is, working with nature and not against it in the quest to meet peoples' needs and wants--instead of disregarding environmental concerns in the process of growing the economy. read more »
End of Census, and for Many, End of Job, ourfuture.org | July 12, 2010
It was a finely honed machine, this United States Census team, and it had a good run. But in the coming days and weeks, many of its members will experience the pain of unemployment — once again. read more »
Congress Stalled As 2 Million Lose Jobless Benefits, npr.org | July 12, 2010
When members of Congress return from their Fourth of July break Monday, they'll find a big challenge waiting for them right where they left it. The issue is unemployment — specifically an extension of benefits for people who've lost their jobs. The debate has turned into a high-stakes, election-year stand-off over deficits. read more »
Kentucky Union Members Take Fight for Jobs, Jobless Aid to McConnell’s Doorstep, blog.aflcio.org | July 9, 2010
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and his Senate cohorts who have flipped off long-term jobless workers by blocking unemployment insurance (UI) extensions and jobs legislation are enjoying a pleasant week off, with pay. Meanwhile, 250,000 workers this week and 1.7 million since June 1 have lost their UI lifeline. read more »
Obama Shifts to Export-Led Jobs Push , The Wall Street Journal | July 8, 2010
The White House is shifting the focus of its job-creation efforts away from appeals for more federal spending and toward expanding exports and persuading business leaders to invest more. read more »
