It seems that I begin a post every month by writing, “Another terrible jobs report.” And it seems I end that post each month asking why our leaders are ignoring the problem. Our country is in a jobs emergency, and our government is not doing its part to fill the gap and create jobs. In fact, now they are talking about cuts that will just make it worse. more »
If the topline numbers of today’s jobs report weren’t depressing enough, consider some other facts that, taken together, strongly suggest that we are in a serious economic crisis. Let’s start with the basics. The unemployment rate crept up to 9.2% in June. more »
For years people have been asking why we don’t launch a national effort to save energy and create jobs by retrofitting buildings to be more energy-efficient. Last week I wrote that even simple things, like painting roofs white can save energy and employ a lot of people. more »
We fought a wealthy powerful few who had all the say and didn’t let us have a say, and made a country where We, the People made the decisions and share the benefits.
So because we had a say we built up a country with good schools, good infrastructure, good courts, and we made rules that said workers had to be safe, get a minimum wage… we protect the environment, we give out social security. We take care of each other.
We started letting goods in made by people who had no say, so the goods were cheap and they undercut us.
I watched a Congressional hearing yesterday (webcast), examining why we need a national industrial strategy. There were a few pro-manufacturing voices. more »
We've been deferring maintenance of our infrastructure since the Reagan tax cuts - never mind modernizing to restore American competitiveness. It is something that has to be done anyway, and here we are with so many people needing work. It's just nuts. Millions of jobs that need doing, and millions out of work, and we can't connect the dots. more »
I never expected I'd be called upon to write an open letter to the Speaker of the House because he used my words in a misleading way. And I certainly never expected that letter to include detailed descriptions of the plot and weaponry used in the Star Wars movies. But here we are.
In a move that some of us have anticipated since early 2009, the Republicans are now running to both the left and right of the White House on jobs, emphasizing populist themes while pushing pro-corporate policies. As part of that campaign, Speaker of the House John Boehner's latest blog post quoted a series of progressive writers and organizations who have criticized the White House's overly cautious jobs approach. (Or course, we know that most politicians' posts and tweets are written by their staff, and we've all learned why that can be a good idea.)
The Speaker's post quoted me out of context in exactly the same way movie reviews are sometimes quoted in movie ads. (The review: "This turkey gave me a terrific headache."The poster: "Terrific!") The following letter will hopefully clear the record. more »
Negotiating with crazy people is always a bad idea and negotiating with hostage-takers is dangerous. But negotiating with crazy hostage-takers is worse than dangerously bad. The “debt-ceiling” deal being negotiated to keep the economy from being crashed could crash the economy anyway. more »
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