Economy

President Obama's Weekly Address: Made In America

October 16, 2011 by Left in Alabama

Speaking from a GM plant in Detroit, with President Lee of South Korea at his side, Barack Obama praised the trade agreements Congress approved a few days ago and urged Congress to use the same bipartisanship to pass the American Jobs Act.

We can’t afford this lack of action.  And there is no reason for it.  Independent economists say that this jobs bill would give the economy a jumpstart and lead to nearly two million new jobs.  Every idea in that jobs bill is the kind of idea both parties have supported in the past. 

Even though Senate Republicans blocked debate on the Jobs Act last week, Obama promised that Congress would vote on other parts of the bill, especially those focused on getting people back into the workforceto "earn their piece of the American Dream."

The One Percenters: Game, set, and class warfare

October 9, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," really tagged the wealthiest one percent of America the other day in a speech at the Occupy Wall Street rally.

Her speech was shortened because there were no amplified microphones, but here's what Klein said in the full, written version. You can't get much more succinct about what's happening in the US right now regarding "class warfare," and her words surely will remind many of the Scott Walker school of public policy. Here she is:

If there is one thing I know, it is that the one percent loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.

And there is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it’s a very big thing: the 99 percent. And that 99 percent is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say “No. We will not pay for your crisis.”

Scott Walker's certainly wrong about the dangers of business uncertainty

October 7, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Risky, but goodI'm back a third time to talk about the currently fashionable Republican notion (at least, fashionable among Republicans) that reducing business uncertainty is the only real way to fix America's economic woes. Sorry if I seem tiresome and pedantic on this issue, but I really do think it's important and instructive in many ways. This time, I present yet another reason why Scott Walker is certainly wrong about uncertainty

This idea of uncertainty holding back job creatjion is, as I've noted, one that has been adopted wholesale by Walker, as when he commented on the state Department of Revenue's decision to slam small "roll your own" cigaret shops:

"What we hear from employers all the time … is they want the certainty of knowing what the law is, what the rules are, that they're applied universally and across the board."