One of our nation's richest men, billionaire Nick Hanauer, just destroyed the GOP's economic talking points. In a testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Hanauer explained why rich people like him are not, in fact, the real job creators. He said, “In the same way that it's a fact that the sun, not earth, is the center of the solar system, it's also a fact that the middle class, not rich business people like me, are the center of America's economy.”
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You know how big-company lobbyists get some states to pass laws that block cities and counties from doing something about problems like tobacco or guns? Well there is a “trade” treaty called the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the works that sets down international rules that would keep our Congress and our states from regulating the giant [...]
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The last couple of months in Washington have been punctuated by burst of excitement as policymakers and pundits reacted to what to them was good news for the economy. The stock market is up. Consumer spending is up. Housing is booming again. The era of “uncertainty” is over. “The economy is holding up surprisingly well,” Pundits exchanged rhetorical [...]
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For the grasping managers of Corporate America — and the institutions their wealth dominates — no workers deserve dignity, not even the most amazingly accomplished. Locked-out musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra What do bank executives who make $19 million a year do in their spare time? They do the same thing they do in the [...]
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Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, argued that “trade policy needs to adapt to global challenges” and “trade done right creates prosperity for the middle class” during a speech on the “Competitive Agenda for a Global Economy” at the Center for American Progress on Friday. Brown urged that now with goods and services trade accounting for nearly [...]
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Diedre Melson says she had been working from the time she was 13 years old – until the Great Recession hit and she, as a mother with four children, was laid off from her job as a phlebotomist at the Alpha Plasma Center in Oregon, along with 1,500 other people. Today, she is employed at [...]
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President Obama and Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping begin two days of “get to know you” meetings today near Palm Springs. Amidst talk of development of a new relationship, and “re-examining the premises” of our understandings, there are a number of big issues waiting to be addressed. But no [...]
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The May jobs numbers – with a net growth of 175,000 jobs – shows an economy that is treading water. There is no change in the unemployment rate or number of unemployed, no change in number of long-term unemployed. Worse, there is no change in the employment-population ratio, which “has shown little movement” over the [...]
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