Light at the End of the Unemployment Line? (July 30th)
According to Economic Policy Institute economist Josh Bivens, after a contraction of the Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all economic activity, over the past two quarters of an annualized rate of negative six percent, the GDP for this past quarter will come in at about negative 1.5 percent. Without the President's economic recovery act, the number would have been three times higher, he reports.
Climate Bill Provides Real Cost Relief for Consumers
While most people understand the urgency of climate change, one of the top concerns many working families have with a cap-and-trade system is added costs for energy.
Economic Recovery: Take Two
The legacy of the Bush Administration has been a perfect storm of economic devastation – in finance, housing and jobs. The challenge of fixing this economic mess is enormous – and urgent. Creating good jobs that cannot be outsourced is central to the solution.
Foreclosed and Evicted in Oakland
At eight in the morning on Monday, ten Alameda County Sheriffs arrived in their patrol cars in front of the tan house on the corner of Tenth and Willow in west Oakland, the oldest African American neighborhood in the city, and one of the oldest on the west coast. The renovated home is surrounded by an iron fence, and the sheriffs poured through its open gate and up the stairs.
A Living Wage as Economic Stimulus
To little fanfare, the federal minimum wage rose to $7.25 per hour July 24th. It was the third scheduled raise in the minimum wage since 2007. A higher federal minimum wage is the best kind of economic stimulus for working families, say workers’ rights advocates and even some business owners.
Podcast #105: Minimum Wage Not Enough
On this episode, President Obama fires back against Republican obstructionism of health reform. The minimum wage goes up July 24th to $7.25 per hour. And we play excerpts of a recent interview with Dan Kovalik a United Steelworkers union staffer who traveled to Honduras earlier this month to observe pro-democracy protests against the military coup.
Light at the End of the Unemployment Line? (July 23)
A disappointing unemployment report earlier this month that saw the loss of 467,000 jobs in the month of June and a rise in the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent, has caused predictions of a nearing economic turnaround to fall flat in recent months.
Notes on Jubilee: Solve the Financial Crisis with Debt Cancellation
The credit system had become vastly over-extended. The ratio of virtual bank money to real money had become unsustainable. Either the state had to resort to the printing press to create more $ and £, or the virtual money had to be canceled. The alternative to quantitative easing, was the Jubilee — the general forgiveness of all debts.
Lonesome Hobo Economics: Should the bankers be hanged?
Should the bankers be hanged? Their reckless betting of other people's money turned a cyclical economic crisis into a near meltdown not seen since the Great Depression.
Notes On How the Financial Sector Really Works
I would categorize the financial sector as unproductive. In one sense this seems pretty obvious since they do not physically produce anything. But, apologists for the banks might say, this Smithian distinction is misleading.
