Audio

With the Sept. 5 report that the unemployment rate rose from 5.7 percent to 6.1 percent in August, there are now 9.4 million unemployed people, including 1.8 million long-term unemployed. Meanwhile, inflation is up to 5.6 percent, making for a combined "misery index" of 11.7 percent.

Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, agrees that while some conservatives pooh-pooh the concerns about the deteriorating state of the economy as "whining," those same critics on the right are likely to find themselves embarrassed as these negative unemployment trends continue. As Mishel notes in this interview, the latest unemployment report should shift the policy debate away from conservative sloganeering about more tax cuts for corporations and cutting government spending, and toward a real debate about investments in our economy that will produce jobs and repair our broken infrastructure.

The conservative failure in public investment, and progressive solutions for addressing that failure, is the subject of my interview with Eric Lotke, the research director of the Campaign for America's Future, on WHMP-AM, where I was substituting for Bill Dwight. Lotke points out the consequences of years of disinvestment in public assets, including examples of how we are falling behind other countries, and discusses some solutions now being considered by progressive-minded leaders in Washington.

In this interview with Bill Scher for his “Liberal Oasis” radio show, David Sirota warns that the populist uprising reverberating across the country will not by itself translate to progressive change unless the movement becomes more effective in harnessing that demand for change. Sirota shares insights from his latest book, "The Uprising."

Research director Eric Lotke, in an interview with Bill Scher on his Liberal Oasis radio show, uses the Campaign For America's Future report "The Stress Test" to show how Bush administration policies have harmed the economy. The Stress Test offers vital statistics on the effects of rising living costs and disappearing jobs, and Lotke puts the figures in context.

Lawrence Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, says in this podcast that there is further confirmation that we are in a recession in Friday's unemployment report. Policymakers need to respond with a much more robust program of job creation and extended unemployment benefits than that being advanced by the Bush administration and conservatives.

In the podcast, Mishel puts these numbers in context:

• The economy lost 22,000 jobs in April, but the employment picture was particularly bad in manufacturing and construction, which lost 110,000 jobs, and in retail trade, which was down 27,000 jobs.
• The number of persons working part time for economic reasons increased in April by 306,000 to 5.2 million. This level was 849,000 higher than in April 2007.
• The first-quarter gross domestic product was reported earlier this week as growing at an annual rate of 0.6 percent, not nearly enough to assure needed growth in job opportunities.

Even though a fight for union representation rights has stalled in Congress, the Jobs with Justice coalition is not only being persistent but is optimistic as it prepares for its upcoming national conference.

The grassroots organization of labor and community activists has had several recent successes at the state and local level, and a major focus of its conference—in Providence, R.I., from May 2-4—is building on those successes to win passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would facilitate union elections without corporate interference, living wage ordinances and civil rights protections for immigrant workers.

In this interview, Jobs with Justice executive director Sarita Gupta discusses the agenda of the conference and the challenges the organization will tackle in the coming months.

More details are available at the conference registration page.

Rick Perlstein explores the life of Richard Nixon and the impact he is having in today’s politics in his just-released book, “Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.” He talked about the book at a reading April 14 at Georgetown University sponsored by the Toqueville Forum. Steven F. Hayward, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of his own book on Nixon, was the respondent. The book is now available at major bookstores.

James Roosevelt Jr.., grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is working to keep the FDR legacy alive as a member of the board of governors of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. In this interview, Roosevelt encourages progressives to consider what the New Deal meant for America and spearhead a 21st century revival of government activism on behalf of the people. The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, which has merged with the Roosevelt Institution, a student think tank, held an all-day conference in Washington on “The New New Deal,” that the Campaign for America's Future co-sponsored.

Progressives need to rekindle the spirit of the New Deal to move the nation toward solutions to today's economic crises that match the size of the problems, according to the leaders of the The Roosevelt Institution, which sponsored a conference in Washington April 9 on "The New New Deal." In this podcast, two conference participants, New Deal historian William Leuchtenburg and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities president Robert Greenstein talk about the Roosevelt era and the difference his expansive vision about the role of government would make on such issues as the housing crisis.

Responding to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report that the nation’s unemployment rate rose from 4.8 to 5.1 percent in March. Economic Policy Institute economist Jared Bernstein dissects the current unemployment trends and discusses the remedies that progressives need to be pushing for in the coming months.

RELATED: Economic Policy Institute Issue Brief: "Reading the Vital Signs in the Jobs Report."