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United Steelworker Blog
Unemployment Falls to 9.7 Percent, But Private Sector Job Growth Slows
Sun, 06/06/2010 - 07:00By Dean Baker Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research Excluding Census workers, job growth has just kept pace with the growth in the labor force over the last 3 months. The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent in May, primarily as a result of 411,000 temporary Census jobs. The Census hires pushed total job creation for May [...]
Progressives: Time To Go Off the Reservation
Sat, 06/05/2010 - 14:00By Robert L. Borosage Co-Director Campaign for America’s Future When progressive activists gather next week at the annual America’s Future Now conference, frustration and dismay will be widespread. Action on jobs is stalled among mixed signals from the White House. A Democratic Congress pours billions into the war in Afghanistan even as legislation to forestall the unimaginable [...]
Economy Adds 431,000 Jobs – Barely Enough to Stay in Place
Sat, 06/05/2010 - 11:00James Parks By James Parks AFL-CIO Senior Writer Some 431,000 net new jobs were created in May. A whopping 411,000 of those new jobs were temporary U.S. Census jobs while private employers added only 41,000 new jobs in May. Overall, the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7 percent, down from 9.9 in April, according to a report released this [...]
From Shared Sacrifice to Hedonism
Sat, 06/05/2010 - 07:00David Sirota By David Sirota Political journalist, best-selling author and syndicated newspaper columnist After Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt delivered a national address making eight references to the “sacrifice” that would be needed in the impending war and three mentions of the “self-denial” we would have to endure. “Every single person in the United States is [...]
Are Compassion and Community Evil?
Fri, 06/04/2010 - 14:00By Mike Lux Author, “The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be” Conservatives have historically argued against progressive policies on a variety of fronts: the unintended consequences of change, the primacy of the individual over government, the dangers of a growing bureaucracy (or more generically, “big government”), the importance of traditional values and local [...]
Friday’s Job Numbers, and What They Won’t Tell Us About America’s Growing Anxious Class
Fri, 06/04/2010 - 11:00By Robert Reich Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley Last year was a fabulous one for entrepreneurs, at least according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity released last month by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. “Rather than making history for its deep recession and record unemployment,” the foundation reported, “2009 might instead be remembered [...]
How Soon Until the Free Market Stops the Oil Spill?
Fri, 06/04/2010 - 07:00By Bob Cesca Author, “One Nation Under Fear” I’m sitting here at my desk watching the oil droids hack away at the blowout preventer in preparation for the “cap” portion of the “cut and cap” procedure, which, contrary to what I’m hearing on cable news, is intended to do something other than stopping the flow of oil [...]
Tax Cuts Caused the Deficits, Therefore. . .
Thu, 06/03/2010 - 14:38By Dave Johnson Fellow with Campaign for America’s Future No serious person denies that Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts and military increases threw the country into a pattern of borrowing and borrowing that we have not escaped. When Reagan took office the national debt was $995 billion. When Reagan left office it was $2.87 trillion and climbing fast. No [...]
Steelworkers Help Green Light New Energy-Efficient Bulbs
Thu, 06/03/2010 - 12:16Mike Hall By Mike Hall AFL-CIO Senior Writer Here’s a way to reduce your carbon footprint and support good green union jobs. Check out the new Sylvania Super Saver halogen light bulbs made by the United Steelworkers (USW) in a Wellsboro, Pa., plant. As more and more households turn to the energy-efficient bulbs over the familiar incandescent light bulb [...]
It’s the Jobs, Stupid
Thu, 06/03/2010 - 11:00By Tula Connell AFL-CIO Managing Editor So the U.S. Senate ran off on vacation and left the House to pass a jobs bill that the august body won’t consider for another week, when up to 1.2 million jobless workers will have lost their unemployment insurance (UI) because the Senate failed to act. Nice. Expect to win any elections anytime [...]
Who is responsible for the Gulf of Mexico crude oil leak?
Thu, 06/03/2010 - 07:00The Gulf of Mexico crude oil leak is partially the fault of the 1990 U.S. Congress that passed the 66-page “Oil Pollution Act of 1990″ obligating BP to pay only for the oil removal and cleanup. This legislation exempts BP from liability for damages that they cause to the Gulf Coast seafood and tourist industries, except [...]
Wall Street and Legalized Loan Sharks
Wed, 06/02/2010 - 14:00By Don McNay Award winning financial columnist and structured settlement guru “I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation.” -Joan Jett In my childhood, Northern Kentucky was a hot spot for organized crime. In a town full of hustlers, prostitutes and gamblers, the profession they looked down on was loan sharking. Loan sharks preyed on the poor and most [...]
An Explosion Could Stop the Oil Flowing into the Gulf
Wed, 06/02/2010 - 12:40I believe that the federal government should immediately detonate a nuclear device in a well 5000 ft below the ocean floor adjacent to and close to (10 feet away from) the leaking BP well. This action would immediately stop the flow of oil and protect the Louisiana estuaries from further damage. Nuclear contamination from an under-the-seabed [...]
Why the Deficit Dominates DC Thinking
Wed, 06/02/2010 - 08:25By Dave Johnson Fellow with Campaign for America’s Future Washington politicians are convinced that the public is demanding cuts in spending, even over creating jobs and restoring the economy. This pressure comes because much of the public believes that “Obama tripled the deficit.” This has been the right’s drumbeat for over a year and the public has [...]
China Trade Reform: Mission (Not Yet) Accomplished
Tue, 06/01/2010 - 14:00By Leo Hindery Jr. Chairman, U.S. Economy/Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation Last week, as the portion of the annual two-day US-China summit in Beijing regarding trade came to a close, I half-expected Treasury Secretary Geithner to tack up a banner on the wall of the Great Hall and declare “Mission Accomplished”. While Mr. Geithner didn’t [...]
Representative Jason Altmire: Job Killing Deficit Hawk
Tue, 06/01/2010 - 10:55By Dean Baker Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was the object of considerable ridicule for his support of the infamous $400 million “Bridge to Nowhere.” This played a big role in his defeat in the last election. It is appropriate that members of Congress pay a price for their support of [...]
“Now Go Make Me Do It!”
Tue, 06/01/2010 - 08:40This is a quote from Franklin Roosevelt. When confronted with the wishes of his progressive voters, his reply was, “I agree with you, Now go make me do it!” In the coming elections this year, that is what Labor and Progressives are going to do. The incumbents in Arkansas and Pennsylvania have opposed the Employee Free [...]
“Government Doesn’t Have the Resources To Stop It”
Mon, 05/31/2010 - 11:00By Dave Johnson Fellow with Campaign for America’s Future People want the President to exert leadership to turn things around. The oil leak. Unemployment. Credit card scams. Foreclosures. Predatory corporations. Environmental destruction. Global warming. Roads and bridges crumbling. Incomes stagnant. Schools getting worse. Companies moving overseas. Problem after problem. People want to know, “Why doesn’t the government push BP [...]
How Conservatives Made the Case for Increased Regulations
Mon, 05/31/2010 - 07:00By Robert Reich Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley According to a new CBS News poll 70 percent of Americans disapprove of how BP has handled the oil gush, compared with 45 percent who disapprove of how Obama has handled it. This could change in the days or weeks ahead if the spill continues to [...]
Guillotines and Green/Tea Party Thinking
Sun, 05/30/2010 - 11:00By Dave Johnson Fellow with Campaign for America’s Future Congress is a big FAIL on jobs and unemployment. The Senate is heading home instead of helping the unemployed, the House is FAILing on jobs unemployment and COBRA subsidies. Congress says they are worried about the deficit, but the deficit was The Plan. It is right in front of [...]