News

The Numbers Trump Can’t Spin

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Total Deaths and Job Loss By Les Leopold As November nears Trump will continue to bombard us with a dizzying array of statistics that he hopes will demonstrate how great a job he and his administration are doing. We do the most testing in the world. We’re making the most ventilators. We build the most hospital beds. And we will soon again have the best economy in the history of the world. But there are two numbers Trump can’t explain away: total deaths and job loss.  He and his handlers had hoped that the final toll would follow from the …

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Public Banking in California Is For Real

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California governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law on October 2, allowing city and county governments to set up publicly owned banks to accept tax and other revenue and fund infrastructure and other programs with lower costs than those offered by commercial banks. You can read the story in the Guardian here..

About the Business Roundtable’s Mission Change

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The Business Roundtable was formed in 1972 with the goal of undermining New Deal-forged worker rights and corporate regulation by the federal government. The Roundtable worked to weaken antitrust regulations, undermine labor protections and stopped Ralph Nader’s attempt to create a consumer protection agency in 1977. This was a group of hundreds of the country’s top companies working to escape federal regulations, decrease taxes, and promote the better business environment. And free trade. But last week they issued a letter that said (from the NY Times): “Breaking with decades of long-held corporate orthodoxy, the Business Roundtable issued a statement on …

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Elizabeth Warren Announces Her Plan to Stop the Financialization of the US Economy.

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You can read her ideas and plans here. Key quote: Here’s the problem with the belief that helping Wall Street always helps the economy: it isn’t true. In recent decades, Wall Street has grown bigger and financial sector profits have gone from 10% to 25% of total corporate profits, but everyone else in America has lived through a generation of stagnant wages and sluggish economic growth. Even today, big banks are making record profits and handing out huge bonuses as average wages barely budge. The truth is that Washington has it backwards. For a long time now, Wall Street’s success hasn’t helped the broader economy — it’s come at …

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The High Price of Child Care

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Child care is expensive because good child care employs a high ratio of caregivers to children. That’s good for children but a problem for working people earning on the low end (and even the middle) of the wage scale. The Economic Policy Institute took a look at child care costs and found that infant care in New York cost more than $14,000, and in 33 states and Washington DC, the cost of child care was higher than the cost to attend the state’s colleges. Follow the link to see how much child care costs in your state. This Vox article …

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CEOs Make How Much More Than Their Workers?

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The AFL-CIO Paywatch program keeps an eye on the executive compensation figures public corporations are required to report thanks to the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. That’s information companies didn’t want to report, and a closer look shows why. Read it here. A few takeaways: In the past 10 years, CEOs have seen their compensation increased by $5,200,000 each. In those same 10 years, employees have seen their compensation increase by $7,858. That’s a ratio of 662 to 1. After the big Trump tax cut in 2017, the top 10 companies in stock buybacks …

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More Than a Trickle Up

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The People’s Policy Project is a think tank run by Matt Breunig, who previously worked as a lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board and as a policy analyst at the Demos Think Tank. The 3P, as they refer to themselves, took a look at the recent Federal Reserve report that tracks the distribution of wealth in the US. You can get to the original data here. By comparing the data from 1989, the first year they were collected, to 2018, the most recent set, and making adjustments for consumer durables (taking them out) and inflation (making all dollars equal …

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The Nitty Gritty Had This to Say About Runaway Inequality

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RUNAWAY INEQUALITY—This is the most pressing issue that affects all working people and the poor. After World War II the US emerged as a super power because its economy built up a strong middle class. The system at that time saw the height of union involvement so workers could negotiate with business for improved wages and benefits. Government regulated businesses, banks and Wall Street. Corporations and the wealthy paid their fair share of taxes. Wages and productivity went up together, side by side. During those years, workers did a little better each year with raising wages and government programs began …

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We’ve Updated the Trainers Map

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More than 550 people have signed up to be Runaway Inequality trainers, helping us organize local training sessions across the country. See where they live! (Right click and click Show Image in New Tab for a bigger version.)