Other Demos writers have been doing great work thinking about job quality, and ways to raise retail and service sector wages. I would like to broaden the focus a bit to include buying power, not just nominal wages.
NEW YORK — Miles Rapoport, President of national policy organization Demos, released the following statement in response to Michigan’s State House and Senate suddenly passing bills Thursday to defund unions and undermine the ability of working people to organize for better pay and benefits:
Today's jobs report shows that the economy continues to slowly improve. After getting run down by a truck driven by Wall Street bankers in 2008, the economy has — over the past four years — emerged from intensive care, left the critical condition list, and is slogging steadily forward through a grueling rehabilitation.
A new Explainer from Dēmos looks at why Washington focuses so heavily on deficit reduction and not on job creation, even as unemployment rates remain high. In short: the affluent donor class and big business interests prioritize deficit reduction and Congress, in turn, prioritizes what they prioritize. As detailed in the Explainer, if deficit reduction was really the priority, Congress would increase spending and invest in job creating projects, like infrastructure upkeep.
Before the Great Recession, the financial sector had consistently been eating up a greater and greater share of the economy. In 2007, it accounted for a whopping 40 percent of corporate profits. Before 1950, the financial sector made up less than 3 percent of GDP; now it makes up more than 8 percent.
The Center for American Progress is out with a budget plan that would reduce deficits by $4.1 trillion over the next decade and, at first glance, seems to makes a good deal of sense.
A few months ago, I wrote about the fracked up logic used by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to outsource reviewing the health impacts of fracking to the Health Commissioner. The ramifications of this decision are now becoming clear.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Massachusetts Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren is likely to focus her efforts on the Senate Banking Committee in areas that go far beyond her bread-and-butter expertise in consumer protection, analysts say.
This is the first article in the “Financial Pipeline Series,” which will examine the underlying validity of the assertion that regulation of the financial markets reduces their efficiency. These articles point out that the value of the financial markets to the real economy is often mis-measured. The efficiency of the market in intermediating flows between capital investors and capital users (like manufacturing and service businesses, individuals and governments) is the proper measure.
Four-year-old John Kaykay is a serious and quiet boy—“my thoughtful one,” his dad calls him. When the official greeters at the front door of the McClure early-childhood center in Tulsa welcome him with their clipboards and electric cheer—“Good morning, John! How are you today?”—he just slowly nods his small chin in their direction. When he gets to Christie Housley’s large, sunny classroom, he focuses intensely on signing in, writing the four letters of his name with a crayon as his dad crouches behind him.
NEW YORK -- The United States faces a retirement crisis that threatens future retirees and the next generation of workers. The voluntary employer-sponsored retirement system covers fewer and fewer Americans, often leaving Social Security, originally intended as a supplement to other forms of retirement, as the major source of income for 40 percent of older Americans. Even workers still covered by an employer retirement plan have had their benefits weakened.
It's widely known that the U.S. is way out of step with the rest of the world in not having paid maternity leave. We are now one of only three nations—rich and poor - that don't guarantee job-protected time off with some amount of income after the birth of a child.
If there is any silver lining to the mass destruction brought by Hurricane Sandy, it might be a renewed focus on the importance of infrastructure, and just how much our current systems -- of transit, energy, buildings, and much more -- are outdated and susceptible to another disaster. Government officials like New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo have spoken about the need for new protection, such as flood barriers. This is an important step, but is not a replacement for infrastructure upgrades that could stand up to the kind of harsh weather that America experiences more and more.
It's widely known that the U.S. is way out of step with the rest of the world in not having paid maternity leave. We are now one of only three nations—rich and poor - that don't guarantee job-protected time off with some amount of income after the birth of a child.
The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the newest power-player in D.C. Founded by the beloved Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson (who are taking their act on the road to the tune of $40,000 dollars an appearance, around the average American's yearly income), Fix the Debt advocates a responsible solution to reducing our federal debt.
For most of its history ALEC has operated in the background, but its influence recently drew the spotlight when its promotion of “Stand Your Ground” laws came to light in the wake of the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida. Faced with the potential of consumer boycotts, corporate sponsors such as McDonald’s and Pepsi withdrew their support. Henceforth, the organization announced, it would concentrate on state econom
