The Grip of the Old Economy II
The Washington Post’s Neil Irwin today offers a good summary of foreboding reality: in the halting economic recovery, the global ec
Category: Blog
After Saying China Manipulates Currency Treasury Dept. Declines To Say China Manipulates Currency
In April Treasury Secretary Geithner sidestepped an official declaration that China is manipulating its currency by acknowledging that China “pegs” its currency and that this is harming the world-s economy, but put off a formal declaration of currency manipulation. Today Geithner officially declined to label China a currency manipulator. According to a Wall Street Journal […]
Wall Street Reform Bill Yields Big Win for Little Countries
You know that Wall Street reform bill pending in the Senate? Some last minute insertions add up to a surprisingly big win for the developing world. Oil Companies Required to Detail the Dough Paid to Foreign Governments First, kudos to Senators Dick Lugar (R-Indiana) and Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) for inserting strong provisions that require extractive […]
The Progressive Movement: Out of Work and Losing Hope
The progressive movement that fueled Obama’s stunning 2008 election victory is out of work. Sure, lots of people are unemployed — but the demographic groups at the heart of the Obama coalition have been hit especially hard. That’s why it’s so bitter to watch Obama so passive on the economy. He is meekly awaiting the […]
Fareed Zakaria’s “Greedy Consumers” & Hive Mind CEOs
Fareed Zakaria is an interesting writer who says some sensible things, as when he called the intensity of the war in Afghanistan “disproportionate” to the threat. But he also reflects the biases and distorted perceptions of a punditocratic subculture that continues to paint average citizens as reckless children and business executives as Delphic sages. Zakaria […]
The Grip of the Old Economy
President Obama touted his National Export Initiative this week, boasting that in the first quarter of this year, exports were up 17% from a year ago. Increased exports abroad generate jobs at home. Given the failure of the Senate to pass badly needed jobs bills, the collapse of consumer confidence, plunging home sales, declining factory […]
Too Old For A Job, Too Young For Medicare Or Social Security
Tell us your own story in the comments, please! Here is a fact: There. Are. No. Jobs. Well, there are approx. 10 “official” job-seekers for each job that opens up. (Remember the underemployed figure, known as “U-6” is 21.7% in California 16.7% nationally.) You have to know someone to get a humiliating job standing on […]
Don’t Let Goldman Sachs Off The Hook
When the nation’s most prestigious investment banks found themselves on the verge of total annihilation in the fall of 2008, the most radical and effective government response was not the infamous $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The wildest salvation scheme for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the securities system at large was a plan […]
Obama Announces Export Council, Reports On Export Progress
In his State of the Union speech President Obama announced the National Export Initiative, a campaign to double US exports within 5 years. Today he gave a progress report and announced the members of his Export Council, with a number of CEOs (and one labor leader) including Alan Mulally of the Ford Motor Company, Scott […]
Do Democrats Want Toxic Campaign Cash From Goldman Sachs?
Heavy-hitting Wall Street political donors are withholding their money from the Democratic Party’s campaign coffers, according to a Washington Post report making the rounds on Capitol Hill today. In a political environment in which almost no group is as publicly reviled as a Wall Street executive, Democrats just scored a tremendous public relations coup. Good […]