An Economy For All

Will Workers Survive State Budget Belt-Tightening?

Susan Ozawa — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:30:36 -0800

Executing the Main Street Economic Recovery Program Equitably

Susan Ozawa — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:14:25 -0800

Given the male dominated nature of construction and heavy manufacturing involved in infrastructure projects Eileen Appelbaum, at the School of Management and Labor Relations and Director of the Center for Women and Work recommends that proposals pushing infrastructure investment include construction of child care centers and additional space to accommodate expanded pre-K programs. Appelbaum also recommends including in this investment funds targeting training historically marginalized workers and incentives alongside other mechanisms to ensure these jobs are distributed equitably.

A petition along these lines can be signed here. Progressive economists highlight the importance of the quality of the jobs created, pushing for those receiving recovery funds be held accountable to create jobs with livable wages, health insurance, paid sick days, paid holidays and vacations. Monitoring and oversight to ensure transparency is fundamental. Provisions are outlined by the National Partnership for Women & Families here.

Endorser of the Main Street Recovery Program, Randy Albelda, professor of economics and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Social Policy at University of Massachusetts Boston, highlights the need to address our severe deficits in social infrastructure as well as physical infrastructure. The Main Street Economic Recovery Program emphasizes spending on education, health care and child care, recognizing these should be down payments on larger reforms in our domestic budget priorities.

Signatory, Robert Drago, Professor of Labor Studies and Women's Studies at Penn State University further highlights the economic benefit of child care funding. The multiplier effect embodied in services is stronger than pure construction partly because child care workers earn less, but also because infrastructure investment is capital intensive and can involve foreign inputs although the Main Street Recovery Program emphasizes procuring domestic supplies. You can find Drago’s full argument here.

Following this lead, the Direct Care Alliance has laid out a series of recommendations to President-Elect Obama here. To avoid the kinds of jobs created after Katrina, to begin to set in order our ailing economy and to redirect our comprehensive infrastructure priorities these recommendations offer sound guidance on executing a progressive Main Street Economic Recovery Program that can benefit us all.

Other Economic Recovery Plans

Susan Ozawa — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:19:41 -0800

Center for American Progress, How to Spend $350 Billion in a First Year of Stimulus and Recovery

The United States Conference of Mayors, MainStreet Economic Recovery Report

National Governors Association, Economic Recovery: A Federal‐State Partnership

National Environmental Coalition, Economic Recovery through Investments in our Environment, Energy System and Heritage

USAction, TrueMajority.org and USAction Education Fund, The Next New Deal: Our Plan to Invest in America’s Future

Change.gov Discussion on the Main Street Recovery Program

Susan Ozawa — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:44:00 -0800

Participate in the discussion about the Main Street Recovery Program on Change.gov.

The Global Oil Scam: 50 Times Bigger than Madoff

Philip Palij — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:14:30 -0800

"Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), BP (BP), Total (TOT), Shell (RDS.A), Deutsche Bank (DB) and Societe Generale (SCGLY.PK) founded the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2000. ICE is an online commodities and futures marketplace."

ICE Round trip trades "nothing more than a massive fraud, pure and simple."

Where is the SEC?

Wall Street's Naked Swindle

Philip Palij — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:27:35 -0700

On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, somebody — nobody knows who — made one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen. The mystery figure spent $1.7 million on a series of options, gambling that shares in the venerable investment bank Bear Stearns would lose more than half their value in nine days or less. It was madness...

Chevron Employs Felon and Drug-Trafficker to Derail Trial

Philip Palij — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:50:50 -0700

It appears that American oil giant Chevron is employing methods -- and people -- that are as dirty as the toxic waste pits it left scattered across the rainforest floor.

Billionaires Plundered An Alabama Town, Troops Were Called in ... Illegally

Philip Palij — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:16:03 -0700

Earlier this week, a Goldman Sachs adviser made the mistake of publicly confirming what most of us already assumed: They believe that the shocking gap between their obscene wealth and the rest of America's declining incomes is actually a good thing.

The Greatest Depression Is Coming

Philip Palij — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:27:29 -0700

"...And, while the statistics being released are showing a slow down, this is basically a fabrication. There are thousands of people falling off of unemployment compensation each week — none of them are reflected in the official numbers. ..."

While the departed banksters who injected the financial poison and encouraged others are long gone.

41 Charged With Widespread Mortgage Fraud

Philip Palij — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:34:54 -0700

So it goes....

“The fraud schemes alleged in the cases unsealed today reflect a veritable smorgasbord of scams,” Mr. Bharara said during a news conference in Lower Manhattan. “Whether the economy was going up or the economy was going down, these alleged fraudsters were working feverishly to game the system.”