Most American workers have had the legal right to join unions for 76 years. So you might not think letting people know about that right would be controversial, especially when the information is conveyed by yet another poster in the employee break room or office, next to the one that says you can’t make 14-year-olds work in coal mines and that the federal minimum wage is $7.25.
That the world's first government to back a plan that "regulates the creation and trade of carbon credits from farming and forestry" should be Australia's is no surprise.
Reckless speculation on Wall Street -- which helped cause the financial crisis and Great Recession -- is a big reason why budget deficits have spiralled skyward since 2008, so it's only fair that Wall Street do its share to reduce these deficits.
In the past 15 years the ramifications of poor credit have grown, as credit score "mission creep" has set in, said Amy Traub, a senior policy analyst with the New York-based think tank Demos and author of the recently released report "Discrediting America." Credit scores determine not just the interest rates paid on material goods, such as a cell phone or car, but also the pricing of utilities and insurance. Approximately 60 percent of employers use credit reports to screen job applicants.
Amy Traub, a senior policy analyst at watchdog group Demos, says that credit-based insurance scores hurt lower-income people more because they are more likely to have lower scores. She noted a study that showed while those with lower scores made more claims because they couldn't swallow the costs, the cost of those claims were not necessarily greater.
The anniversary of welfare reform is a fitting occasion to consider how opinion can trump fact and bias policy. The problem with “ending welfare as we knew it” was that it did not end or meaningfully reduce poverty, nor did it secure a decent standard of living for struggling Americans. The poor are still poor, and now they have neither a hand-up nor a hand-out. Jake Blumgart reports that, since 1996, states have been clearing the welfare rolls but leaving poor families with few alternatives:
The public is overwhelmed by budget deficits, shrinking public supports, and the inability of its government to compromise. In this climate, so-called minority issues seem like a distraction. But black and Latino men between the ages of 16 and 24 are profoundly more likely to be poor than whites, more likely to be unemployed or the victims of violent crime, and less likely to graduate from high school.
The public is overwhelmed by budget deficits, shrinking public supports, and the inability of its government to compromise. In this climate, so-called minority issues seem like a distraction. But black and Latino men between the ages of 16 and 24 are profoundly more likely to be poor than whites, more likely to be unemployed or the victims of violent crime, and less likely to graduate from high school.
A communications consultant I know tells me that two of her clients decided this week to take a break from her services. Why? Because both have suffered losses in the stock market and are suddenly worried about money.
With Elizabeth Warren preparing to run for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, an epic -- and telling -- electoral battle is shaping up that will pit one of the most eloquent voices of progressive populism against a star of conservative populism.
Rupert and James Murdoch have even more explaining to do after today's arrest of James Desborough, the former U.S. editor of News of the World, and Tuesday’s allegations that top editors at the paper knew about the use of phone hacking by reporters. While the Murdochs have pleaded ignorance about the sordid doings of their underlings, a growing pile of evidence suggests that at least James was very much in the loop. That is not surprising. You don’t build a business empire – or even inherit one – by being a hands-off boss.
Here's some positive news out of Europe for a change: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called yesterday for a tax on financial trades. This isn't a new idea -- European leaders have pushed it before -- but a financial transaction tax (FTT) is a good idea that deserves to be taken seriously on both revenue-hungry sides of the Atlantic.
According to Fox News Latino, Texas' economy isn't the only one showing that the road to prosperity is paved by austerity. Since March of this year, the unemployment rate in Puerto Rico has fallen from 16.9 to 14.9 percent. Never mind that the Puerto Rican economy still endures an unemployment rate greater than any other state.
The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a pair of decisions affirming campaign finance disclosure provisions in Maine and Rhode Island. I let out a sigh of relief when I read them.
Some progressives might be skeptical of the argument -- which I have made often -- that today's Republican Party is less and less trusted by Wall Street. After all, congressional Republicans slavishly service the financial industry on Capitol Hill, most recently by trying to gut the Dodd-Frank law and stop the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from ever operating.
"What do you think when the President brags about the fact that he is willing to cut home heating oil assistance to the poor along with Republicans to prove that he's getting tough, when you and I know that it's not the poor that are bankrupting us. It's not the poor. It's middle class entitlements, Pentagon spending, it's a tax code that's uneven and unfair. . ."
Let's say you're a member of the upper class. You work as an investor or a banker or an entrepreneur or a highly paid professional (like a doctor, lawyer, or accountant) or a business owner in some industry like retail or transportation. Or maybe you don't work at all, but live off your stocks and bonds. Which economic scenario looks more attractive to you, strictly in terms of how it will affect your bottom line:
Warren Buffet, the second richest person in America, has spent years complaining about how tax policy favors billionaires like himself. Now, with another big fight over revenues looming in Washington, Buffett is once again calling for tax hikes on the wealthy -- penning an op-ed in today's Times entitled "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich."
In its bombshell of a report “Discrediting America,” the nonpartisan public policy research group Demos sums up the problem for black and Latinos:
Credit reports largely mirror racial and economic divides, with African Americans and Latinos disproportionately likely to have lower scores. In turn, these communities are more likely to be offered high-priced loan products, which may contribute to more defaults, maintaining and amplifying historical injustice.