Media

If you don't like unions, pray for tight labor markets. Because when labor is scarce, the law of supply and demand raises wages and workers don't have big incentives to unionize. It's when market's aren't tight that unions become a must-have for workers seeking more pay. 

That insight explains a lot about the growing wave of fast-food strikes over the past year. The biggest strike yet is scheduled for this Thursday, August 29. These strikes are rapidly becoming the most significant labor activism in years, if not decades. 

The Cato Institute came out with a big study recently that argues the familiar point that generous welfare payments undermine incentives to work. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities promptly replied with a four-page paper rebutting key aspects of the report. 

Right now, eager 18-year-olds from across the country are tweeting with bravado photos of their newly postered dorm rooms and scanning with private fear their freshmen class schedules. They're embarking on a journey to capture their piece of the American Dream.

You know the drill — we have a dysfunctional political system and a gridlocked Congress. The House is firmly in the grip of a band of Republican maniacs and the Senate, though technically Democratic, requires a virtually impossible filibuster-proof majority to get anything passed.

So we should just throw up our hands and admit that nothing productive can be done in Washington until we get a Democratic Congress, right?

On the eve of a march to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, labor and civil rights activists are calling on President Barack Obama to honor King with an executive order that would raise wages for as many as two million workers.

One of the most poignant calls came Wednesday from Alvin Turner, a veteran of the famous 1968 Memphis garbage workers strike. Recalling a recent face-to-face meeting with Obama, Turner said “he told me personally he was working hard for the little man. If he don’t sign, he’ll disappoint me badly.”

Yesterday I wrote about why a tight labor market may not return any time soon to raise wages. But here's another scary thought: What if tight labor markets no longer push up wages like was once the case?

The Justice Department on Thursday redoubled its efforts to challenge state voting laws, suing Texas over its new voter ID measure as part of a growing political showdown over electoral rights.

The move marked the latest bid by the Obama administration to counter a Supreme Court ruling that officials have said threatens the voting rights of minorities. It also signaled that the administration will probably take legal action in voting rights cases in other states, including North Carolina, where the governor signed a voter ID law this month.

While the official anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom isn’t until Wed, August 28th, a rally will be held this Saturday, August 24th at the Lincoln Memorial starting at 8 a.m. The rally will be followed by a march to the Martin Luther King memorial. Saturday’s rally is part of a week-long lead up to the 50th anniversary march.

How to handle Syria is the toughest call President Obama has yet faced -- a dilemma where two core progressive values stand in profound tension. 

That tension is clear if we walk through a best case scenario, and then look at a worst case.