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When Obama Won, So Did America’s Future by Joe Conason, truthdig.com | November 8, 2012
What Barack Obama tried to tell America in the hour of his remarkable victory is that the nation’s future won on Election Day. Seeking to inspire and to heal, the reelected president offered an open hand to partisan opponents in the style that has always defined him. “Tonight,” he said, “despite all the hardship we’ve been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I’ve never been more hopeful about our future.” In the days ahead, there will be time to absorb the magnitude of this moment—achieved under the cloud of persistent unemployment and a multibillion-dollar campaign of calumny—but the president clearly knows that he returns to the White House with a renewed mandate. Against great odds, he won nearly all the same states that elected him in 2008 and won the popular vote despite an enormous, angry backlash in the old Confederacy. read more »Obama’s Next Economy: Why He Must Take This Opportunity to Reframe the Economic Debate by Robert B. Reich, robertreich.org | November 7, 2012
When the applause among Democrats and recriminations among Republicans begin to quiet down — probably within the next few days — the President will have to make some big decisions. The biggest is on the economy. His victory and the pending “fiscal cliff” give him an opportunity to recast the economic debate. Our central challenge, he should say, is not to reduce the budget deficit. It’s to create more good jobs, grow the economy, and widen the circle of prosperity. read more »Next Year’s Budget Debate May Be Total Mess by Stan Collender, OurFuture.org | November 6, 2012
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games. read more »Romneyism by Robert B. Reich, robertreich.org | November 5, 2012
By now, in these last remaining days before the election of 2012, we have learned enough about the beliefs of the Republican presidential candidate to see them as a worldview all its own – a kind of creed that explains Mitt Romney. Those who say he has no principles are selling him short. Despite its contradictions and ellipses, Romneyism has an internal coherence. It is different from conservatism, because it does not intend to conserve or protect any particular institutions or values. It is also distinct from Republicanism, in that it is not rooted in traditional small-town American values, nationalism, or states’ rights. The ten guiding principles of Romneyism are. read more »Notes for a Manifesto by Robert Kuttner, Huffington Post | November 5, 2012
The enormity of last week's super-storm is just beginning to sink into political consciousness. Hurricane Sandy should transform what Americans expect from their government, and give the party of government activism new force. As soon as the election is behind us, the country faces a major struggle over what the super-storm portends and requires. But that struggle will be as much within the Democratic Party as between Democrats and the right, because of the deadweight of austerity politics. read more »Obama's Closing Argument: A Winning Message by Terrance Heath, OurFuture.org | November 5, 2012
When it comes to politics, it ain’t over ’til its’ over. And even then it may not be over. With the presidential election just days away, the contest remains close enough to ensure some jangled nerves and nail-biting among Republicans and Democrats. Still, the latest news and numbers should give President President Barack Obama a boost as he delivers his closing argument to voters. Should Obama emerge the victor when the dust settles after Tuesday, his closing argument will become the winning message. And voters convinced to reward Obama with a second term on the strength of that message will — and should — expect him to live up to its vision and promise. read more »Jobs Report Proves the Economy Is on the Upswing by Daniel Gross, thedailybeast.com | November 2, 2012
It's important not to read too much into any single data point. The October jobs report, released Friday morning, is a positive data point. The economy added 171,000 positions, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9 percent. But it also highlights some important positive trends in the long-suffering U.S. labor market. Here are a few important takeaways. After a lull, jobs growth seems to be accelerating. Payroll jobs are becoming more plentiful in the U.S. And that's hard to ignore. The U.S. economy added 171,000 payroll jobs in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So far in 2012, the economy has added an average of 157,000 payroll positions per month; for the last four months, the economy has added over 170,000 payroll jobs per month. In other words, strength seems to be accelerating. read more »#TalkPoverty: The Obama Campaign Responds by Greg Kaufmann, The Nation | November 2, 2012
Three months ago, TheNation.com kicked off a new campaign: “#TalkPoverty: Questions for Obama and Romney.” At the outset of the #TalkPoverty effort, I promised to hound both campaigns for answers. In the end, it didn’t really require hounding as far as the Obama campaign was concerned—they agreed to respond when I first contacted them. The Romney campaign, on the other hand, initially expressed openness before sending an e-mail last Thursday: “We will not be participating. Thanks for the offer.” It seems that the Romney campaign prefers to continue its strategy of speaking about “the poor” without saying anything of substance about antipoverty policies, or speaking in a manner completely untethered from reality, or outright lying. I promised both campaigns that we would run the answers without any interpretation, simply let their responses speak for themselves. Here are the answers from the Obama campaign: read more »Fix the Debt or Save the Coasts? by Robert Kuttner, prospect.org | November 2, 2012
One of the casualties of Hurricane Sandy is the premise that America’s biggest economic problem is deficit reduction. That’s because the United States just became a much larger version of the Netherlands. Once we get through the election, official Washington may be willing to talk about this. President Obama’s leadership in helping flooded communities cope with the damage nicely positions him to lead an effort to prevent future super-storm damage. The new normal is here, the legacy of our denial of the reality of climate change. The federal government needs to do a comprehensive assessment of the public investment necessary to protect our coasts, which will run into the trillions of dollars. One consequences of that reality is that it blows away past assumptions about deficit reduction. The government needs to begin a multi-year public investment program. read more »The Blackmail Caucus by Paul Krugman, The New York Times | November 2, 2012
If President Obama is re-elected, health care coverage will expand dramatically, taxes on the wealthy will go up and Wall Street will face tougher regulation. If Mitt Romney wins instead, health coverage will shrink substantially, taxes on the wealthy will fall to levels not seen in 80 years and financial regulation will be rolled back. Given the starkness of this difference, you might have expected to see people from both sides of the political divide urging voters to cast their ballots based on the issues. Lately, however, I’ve seen a growing number of Romney supporters making a quite different argument. Vote for Mr. Romney, they say, because if he loses, Republicans will destroy the economy. O.K., they don’t quite put it that way. The argument is phrased in terms of “partisan gridlock,” as if both parties were equally extreme. But they aren’t. This is, in reality, all about appeasing the hard men of the Republican Party. read more »
The Latest
Obama to Stump at Smith Electric Vehicles, earth2tech.com | July 8, 2010
President Obama on Thursday plans to swing by Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. Corp., a company working with government backing on electric trucks for commercial fleets. read more »
American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation, The New York Times | July 7, 2010
After breakfast, his parents left for their jobs, and Scott Nicholson, alone in the house in this comfortable suburb west of Boston, went to his laptop in the living room. He had placed it on a small table that his mother had used for a vase of flowers until her unemployed son found himself reluctantly stuck at home. read more »
Factory Jobs Return, but Employers Find Skills Shortage, The New York Times | July 2, 2010
Factory owners have been adding jobs slowly but steadily since the beginning of the year, giving a lift to the fragile economic recovery. And because they laid off so many workers — more than two million since the end of 2007 — manufacturers now have a vast pool of people to choose from.
Yet some of these employers complain that they cannot fill their openings. read more »
Drug Makers Shed 35,000 Jobs, prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com | July 2, 2010
The nation’s drug makers have eliminated nearly 35,000 positions in the first half of this year, second only to government in cutting jobs. read more »
Jim McDermott: Unemployment Standoff 'A Class Warfare Issue' , Huffington Post | July 2, 2010
The House of Representatives approved a bill to reauthorize expired unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless on Thursday, after a similar measure failed for the fourth time in the Senate the previous night due to a Republican filibuster. read more »
Job Creation in Private Sector Remained Weak in June, The New York Times | July 2, 2010
The United States added just 83,000 private-sector jobs in June, a dishearteningly low number that could add to the growing number of economists who warn that the economic recovery has slowed to the point that it cannot generate enough job growth. read more »
Senate G.O.P. Again Kills Jobless Aid, The New York Times | July 1, 2010
For the third time in as many weeks, Senate Republicans on Wednesday successfully filibustered a bill to continue providing unemployment checks to millions of people.
But this time, since the slimmed-down measure attracted two Republican votes, its passage seems assured next month once a replacement is in place for Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., who died on Monday.
Recession Cut into Employment for Half of Working Adults, Study Says, The Washington Post | June 30, 2010
The economic shock has jolted many Americans into a new, more austere reality, which is likely to have lasting consequences for an economy fueled mostly by consumer spending. More than six in 10 Americans say they have cut down on borrowing and spending, the survey found. read more »
Democrats Seek to Extend Emergency Jobless Benefits, The Washington Post | June 30, 2010
Congressional Democrats are struggling to revive a plan to extend emergency unemployment benefits for millions of jobless workers. Although House leaders say they will pass the measure as soon as Wednesday, its fate in the Senate remains uncertain. read more »
Jobless Produce U.S. Profit on Productivity With Less Inflation, bloomberg.com | June 28, 2010
Malcolm Barnes distributed snacks for 27 years before losing his job in October 2007. After applying unsuccessfully with food companies, he’s taken welding and machining classes and is looking for manufacturing work. read more »
