The April unemployment figures are out, and America added 290,000 new jobs. It’s good news, but still unemployment edged up to 9.9 percent. The problem has many layers. First, the American population continues to grow. It takes 127,000 new jobs every month just to keep up with the population. Second, the economy is starting to [...]
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The agenda of the Blue Green Alliance is brilliant and visionary. Build a “new, clean energy economy in America, and put [people] to work creating the American jobs of the future.” The blue green coalition includes environmentalists and organized labor, and its impressive conference in Washington, DC shows both the promise ahead and the blinkered [...]
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Today the Senate Banking Committee is holding a hearing to examine “the impact of China’s exchange rate practices on U.S. manufacturing” Many experts will testify. I offer some pictures that might help. 1. Is China manipulating its currency? Yes: Source: Yuan. Broad Dollar Index (Federal Reserve’s weighted average of exchange values of U.S. dollar against [...]
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In the wake of the 2010 Census, Maryland passed a law yesterday that fixes a major problem. Maryland will now count people in prison where they actually live, not where they are confined. This first-in-the-nation law will improve the fairness and accuracy of Census data used to draw legislative boundaries. 18 percent of the population [...]
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Big corporations still get away with it. A stunning new analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University shows how the IRS targets smaller corporations, while larger corporations that would yield more unpaid tax dollars go unaudited. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but I share some highlights: 1. Among corporations with [...]
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Two items from my inbox: 1. The Economic Policy Institute has a new report detailing the positive impacts of transportation infrastructure spending. A $34.3 billion jobs package will create approximately 480,000 direct and indirect jobs. The report includes state-by-state data, as well as demographics of workers likely to get these jobs and the industry/occupation breakdown. [...]
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The White House today announced its economic initiatives for middle class families, described as a preview of the State of the Union Address. They’re all good ideas and I hope every one of them passes. But something is missing. Mostly, the new initiatives don’t create jobs. Doubling the child tax credit, limiting student loan payments [...]
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You know by now about the Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC. Corporations are people, and corporate spending on political campaigns is the same as free speech. Here’s what Barack Obama said in Audacity of Hope, when he was halfway between a community organizer and president: I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the term [...]
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People have been wondering for years who runs our country. People or wealthy corporations? Today the Supreme Court settled the debate. Today’s decision, Citizens United v. FEC, tilts the balance of power in the country even farther towards wealthy and corporate interests, and gives advertisers more power than voters. The newly composed conservative court upset [...]
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Okay, there was an election in Massachusetts yesterday but I’m not writing about it. I’m writing about something nobody noticed during the election. Infrastructure. Lots of people drove to the polls. Other people traveled by train, walked on sidewalks, or communicated by wireless. Everybody used infrastructure, but nobody noticed it. That’s the trick about infrastructure. [...]
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