John McCain talks a big game, but does he have the chops to be commander in chief?

What happens when Income is less than Outgo?

one word: Recession.

[US Inflation Trend: All Items]
enlarge image

What's a Working Class citizen to do?

   The July consumer inflation data is out, and it's bad.  Official CPI at 5.6% year-over-year is the worst since 1990.  Food prices were up +.9% in a month.  Energy prices up +1.9% in July.
    Put this on top of the import inflation in excess of +20% reported a few days ago, and you have a bad situation.  Americans' purchasing power hasn't nearly kept up with the goods and services they must buy.  Wage growth over the last year has only been +3.4%, meaning wage earners have lost -2.2% in purchasing power.
    Simply put, average Americans' standard of living has taken a big hit.

Bravo! James Ragland, for report on poverty http://www.brookings.edu/...
in Dallas Morning News.

In the midst of Olympic fever it is good to have a journalist call our attention to something of real consequence.

  Well, it never gets old--watching the reality unfold that contradicts what the blind advocates of so-called "free trade" and "liberalization" want people to believe. One of the great lies of the globalization scam is that, hey, don't worry, if we just educate people more and have them do higher-skilled jobs, not to worry, everyone will be just fine and globalization will be that warm and fuzzy trend that just makes everyone feel better. Unfortunately, the facts keep getting in the way.

Being a former Secretary of Labor, you don't get as much attention as former Treasury Secretaries or Fed Chairmen when it comes to economic matters.

But Robert Reich should.  In fact, the labor market is precisely the perspective we should bring to our present economic condition.  He wrote an excellent post recently summarizing, in very accessible, clear language, the major theme driving the various economic uncertainties people are facing in our country.

  With the backdrop of the collapse of the global trade talks (a good thing), here's something to consider: the great, wonderful benefits of so-called "free trade" or "liberalization" have cost 2.3 million U.S. workers their jobs between 2001 and 2007, according to a very, detailed fact-based (as opposed to rhetorical promises from pro so-called "free trade" advocates). But, there is even more, and deeply disturbing trends, behind these numbers and how they are a crucial link in the collapse of a decent economic future for Americans.

While reading the news and going through emails this morning I came upon an editorial called "Six little words that could solve America's wage crisis." The article appeared in a Washington state online paper called The Herald Net. Before I read the six words in question I sipped on my coffee and said to myself: join a union - that's only three words. This early in the morning I am hardly on my game, alas, I was very close.

Below is a simple diary about the article that I read, cross posted from Union Review with the hope to get others thinking about this with me.

This is an ongoing series from the national tour for THE UPRISING. You can order The Uprising at Amazon.com or through your local independent bookstore.

ATLANTA - Two weeks ago, I met with my friend Tom Geoghegan, the single best writer and thinker on labor issues in America, and a guy who should be a leading choice for Secretary of Labor in a Democratic administration. I turned our conversation into my newspaper column this week, which you can read here.

  The robbery of our country by a small elite has continued, unabated, for the past eight years. That may sound like a radical statement. But, it is simply a fact--a fact reported today by that radical, left-wing publication, The Wall Street Journal...

I've been in a friendly, yet heated, political argument with my uber-conservative friend for months now. I always have the answers, and usually he looks foolish. Not because he doesn't know his stuff, but because he's defending policies and ideals that in and of themselves are ridiculous.

crossposted from unbossed

Yawn! So what else is new? Another Bush agency transformed from one that fulfilled its mission to protect the powerless and to crack down on law-breaking employers into one that completely refuses to do its job. Just another example of our unitary executive - make that uni-tarry executive - at work. Talk about your energy in the executive the ultra conservatives tout! I guess the WHD folks have found a burning bush to tell them what their life's mission is about.

  There seems to be an emerging consensus that so-called "free trade" is dead. Even the business press is beginning to accept the inevitable. So, maybe we can now begin a rationale debate about trade, without meaningless marketing phrases like "free trade".

3 Facts That Could Change This Election (If We Share Them With Enough People)

Here are 3 facts that could not only change the outcome of this election, but with regard to the first two points, they could change the results of every election for years to come if we make enough people aware of them.

I want to keep this as simple and short as possible, so that the people who need to read this actually do (i.e. our low-info voting friends, family and co-workers, etc.). And again, I encourage you to share this information with as many people as you can, either by recommending and commenting on this thread, by emailing these points out and or by posting a link to this thread on the appropriate websites.

Also, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks created a youtube clip of the 3 facts. And for the original post of the 3 facts which includes all of the sources, click here.

Republican free trade VS Democratic free trade

July 02, 2008
Sean Lewis

Democratic free trade is
The foreign country opens it borders for US goods,
and  the US opens it borders to foreign goods.

That is it, that is free trade.

Republican free trade is
The foreign country opens it borders to BOTH
US companies and the ability to exchange goods.

However, this is the problem. Republicans believe
US companies should be able to open plants in the
foreign country to exploit the cheaper labor, create
goods at low costs and then sell those products in
the US market at greater earnings to the US Corps.

  A couple of weeks ago, I noted that corporations were now beginning to think that China, with its rising prices and increasing wages (relatively speaking), wasn't cheap enough. And, so, comes another report via Reuters:

   The result is higher prices at U.S. stores like Wal-Mart and Target that have increasingly filled their shelves with Chinese-made goods. It may also mean thinner profit margins for a wide swathe of Corporate America, which for years looked to China to drive down costs. And it is beginning to spur a global treasure hunt for the world's next low-cost factory.

  Not to be holier than thou, I understand why it's cool to drive a Prius--rented one recently on a trip and loved that gas mileage. Clean for the environment, easy on the wallet--what's not to like? How about this: Your Prius is being made by workers who are being driven to the brink of collapse--and, in at least one documented case, to death. And in this story is a vexing question: how do we "green" the environment AND make sure that we still have decent work, too?

  Yesterday, Sen. Obama made comments to a business reporter that leave the impression that he is already shifting his stated position on NAFTA and, by extension, so-called "free trade". It is worth looking at as a sign where Sen. Obama really intends to lead us on trade if he wins the White House.