Media

After a bruising election in which their standard-bearer became a symbol of wealth and privilege, Republicans are emerging as born-again champions of the common people. The latest proposal in the House, the “Working Families Flexibility Act,” is billed as a pro-worker proposal that will let mom bank comp time so she can take a family vacation later. But for such a worker-friendly idea, the bill has attracted support from strange quarters.

The Department of Labor (DOL) just lifted a national order that disallowed new enrollments in the Job Corps that had been in place since January.

A new report from the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) is advocating a 36 percent interest cap rate that would alleviate the personal debt crisis in the United States.

Three developments in finance cropped up in the last days that must be read as a single story.

One of the main arguments used to justify fracking is that due to the increased supply of natural gas, the price of natural gas is falling and electricity generation is shifting towards using natural gas and away from using coal. Fracking proponents also point to a decline in overall greenhouse gas emissions as a result of natural gas use. But, if natural gas really is so cheap and we are producing more of it, why aren’t electricity prices decreasing?

Like many New Yorkers, Hazel B. of Queens struggled to get by after she was laid off from her job as an accounts receivable administrator. A single mother of two, Hazel relied on credit cards to make ends meet while she looked for work.

Finally, she found a job opening that looked promising. She went on two interviews and took a test given by the potential employer. She believed she had performed well, but then word came back that Hazel would not be hired because of negative information in her credit report.

The steps of New York’s City Hall were crowded this morning.

Krugman speculates that they see this as a morality play wherein the rich are obviously the virtuous heroes (being rich and all) and the plebes are a bunch of lazy, immoral parasites who refuse to carry their weight. I think he's probably right, but I'm going to speculate further that for many of them this is a result of guilt at their own gargantuan selfishness and greed. I can only imagine that it's hard to live with yourself when you're taking more and more of the wealth that humans create while everyone else is falling behind.

President Obama’s nomination of Ernest Moniz for secretary of energy is a serious blow to environmentalists. Appearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources yesterday, Moniz strongly supported an “all-of-the-above” strategy and emphasized that lowering the cost of energy should be the United States’ top priority.