Republicans in 10 states are pushing Right to Freeload legislation that would enable workers to benefit from a union at their employer without paying dues to support collective bargaining, grieving or other union services. For a decade, virtually no one promoted this kind of union-killing measure. What do you believe is behind the sudden interest now?

We Bailed Out Wall Street and Wall Street Bailed Out on Us

The effort to add Indiana to the roster of Right-to-Work (for less) states must be recognized for what it is: the never-ending story of self-serving politicians and their corporate backers attempting to destroy unions and ultimately the middle class in our country.

Right-to-Work is not what it seems. In Right-to-Work (for less) states, lower wages prevail with higher poverty, poorer education and less social services. The legislature in Missouri, both Democrat and Republican, understood this fact when they defeated the National Right-To-Work Committee’s initiative to turn Missouri into a Right-to-Work (for less) state by a 3-2 margin. They understood the devastating ramifications prevalent in states that succumbed to corporate rhetoric convincing workers to vote against their own interests.

We are all in this fight together. There is a link between union wages, purchasing power and the fate of businesses, large and small. Unionized workers earn 15 to 28percent more than their non-union counterparts and receive far better health and retirement benefits. Economist James Galbraith says that unionization created the middle class by its direct effect on wages and benefits of unionized workers and the indirect effect on the wages of non-unionized workers, and by its impact on the creation of the social institutions such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid – the very structures of the New Deal and the Great Society.

The past 30 years have seen the most colossal redistribution of wealth in modern world history from working people to a select few. In 2008, John Cavanagh and Claude Callius wrote in The Nation: “We now live in a second Gilded Age. Today, as in the robber baron era a century ago, the gap between those at the top and the rest of us is staggering. The 400 richest Americans the 1 percent — hold more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.” (more…)

An article by Eric Lichtblau  in the NYT documents the close ties of Newt Gingrich and some of his associates to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

Since Republicans and Tea Party members are often pointing to Fannie and Freddie to blame them for the Great Recession, perhaps it is worth considering how Republicans may contribute to its cause.  Lichtblau’s article clearly shows the influence of Gingrich and his cronies at Fannie and Freddie, and Republicans were in control of both houses of Congress and the White House when the recession occurred. 
 
It is interesting to note how easily Mr. Gingrich turns against any entity that has supported him so richly.  If you’re thinking of donating to the Gingrich campaign, perhaps you should think again. Don’t forget that Mr. Gingrich’s pet project as president would be a lunar settlement and we certainly wouldn’t enjoy having the moon come crashing down to Earth.
 
As it turns out, implicit in Mr. Gingrich’s blaming Fannie and Freddie is a quote from Walt Kelly’s Pogo:  “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Feb. 1, 2012, will go down in infamy in the state of Indiana.   The Republican legislature voted for “Right-To-Work” and Governor Mitch Daniels signed it into law.     I was there for the Senate vote.   Let me tell you what happened and what I learned.  Most importantly, we may have lost a battle but the war has just begun and our weapon is the ballot box.   We must VOTE out those who do not represent working people.
If you have never participated in a union protest trip, I recommend it.   Get on the bus next time; the more, the better.  No matter the outcome, there are many benefits.   Learn about how our democracy works (or doesn’t).     All you need to do is sign up and get yourself on the big comfortable bus.   There was a good mix of ages, some couples and just a lot of good people who share a common interest.      

One valiant man who had lost both legs in a mill accident a few years ago came with his wife.  He told us how the union was there for him when he needed it most.   His presence inspired us to stand up for him and the union.  We gave each other strength. 

Sarah was a great trip coordinator.   She directed us to either the 4^th floor to try and get into the limited seats of the gallery or the 2^nd floor where thousands of union members congregated outside the open senate doors chanting and marching with our signs.  We made up a few signs and T-shirts that said “Stand Union Strong” and “No RTW.”  There were many great slogans but I soon realized that “Remember in November” would be our new line.     

After the Senate session, I got a chance to self-tour the Capitol building and get into the gallery.  We even had time to walk around outside and see the stadium and grandiose preparations for Super Bowl Sunday in person.    On the bus ride home, we enjoyed great sandwiches provided by the union while Bob talked to us about the plan to fight back. (more…)

I know that we all purchase items and notice “Made in China” and we all think, “I wish I could buy this item ‘American-made.”’ But realize that we are getting it at a lower price because China can produce it cheaper and we accept that. But what if that wasn’t the case?

What if products were being imported that were costing more to manufacture than their market value? Are you thinking what I am thinking?  That doesn’t make sense. Well, it is happening. American jobs in 47 states are in peril because China is importing coated paper to the United States.

The Chinese Paper Industry has benefited from $33.1 billion in subsidies that distort trade and create an unlevel playing field for domestic companies and workers. Since 2002, jobs in the U.S. paper industry have decreased 29 percent – that’s from roughly 557,000 workers to 398,000 workers.

Why would a country with very limited forests (smallest in the world per capita) become the largest importer of pulp and recycled paper? China imports the bulk of its raw materials at world prices, but its paper sells at prices much lower than the U.S. or the European Union. China has tripled its paper production in the last 10 years despite global overcapacity, saturated market and inherent advantage in the marketplace.

It is hard to explain to that unemployed paper worker that he has lost his job because China is importing inferior coated paper that is not paying for itself, but is being subsidized by the Chinese government.  It is hard to tell the shopkeeper that he is going to have to close his store because the paper workers that used to buy his goods are not employed due to China importing paper that is not paying for itself. It is not easy to tell the car dealership that it is selling 29 percent less cars because coated paper is being imported that is subsidized by the Chinese government. (more…)

Yesterday, on my journey to the supermarket, I passed a man lying on the ground, laying pipe for a drain from the roof of a local apartment building.
 
Suddenly, the phrase “lying down on the job” came to mind.  Indeed, there are numerous times when lying down is essential to getting a job done:  auto mechanics, plumbers, photographers, et al, may encounter situations where lying down is necessary.

This article is in response to yesterday’s post by leading economist Dean Baker, who strongly advocates a weakened dollar as the way to eliminate our trade deficits and restore jobs and other key elements of our economy.

The Keynesian theory in that proposal may at times be sound, but our actual experience in global competition has sharply proven otherwise. History as far back as the 1950’s shows that the United States usually ran a modest trade surplus until the early 1970’s while we had a fixed price for the dollar equal to gold’s price. But during that period we also had a firmnational policy of maintaining a modest trade surplus. In fact, in 1969 I was brought in as Assistant Secretary of Commerce with a main responsibility of keeping that positive trade balance in the face of new global import competition.

However, a big new body of opinion in the United States favored wide-open markets here to aid our multinational companies in expanding abroad. Most economists shared the enthusiasm for globalization and sought a way for the United States to stay competitive in our home market if we lowered our barriers to imports. They thought they had found the magic answer – we would “float the dollar” or let its value go up or down based on how we competed here. They confidently predicted that we’d never have annual trade deficits of more than $25 billion before the “adjustment process” would work and our trade balance would return to zero or better.

Yet here we are 40 years later running annual trade deficits of $700 billion or more. What happened? Answer: Other countries, especially China, found they could change the value of their currencies to keep us higher priced while being buried in imports. So every year since 1976, while floating the value of the dollar, we’ve had ever-growing trade deficits for a total of $8+ trillion wasted on ruinous trade deficits and borrowing to cover them. (more…)

The massive flow of imports into America is destroying our domestic industries at a terrifying pace, and with it the jobs of millions of workers and our capabilities as a self-sufficient nation.

In the past decade we lost 55,000 manufacturing facilities closed or sold to foreign owners. Six million more workers lost their jobs, and we had total trade deficits of $6.3 trillion covered by borrowing abroad at $2 billion per day!

Enacting and enforcing balanced trade legislation is the best solution. We’re urging the U.S. Senate to move ahead on strong action NOW.

This is not a new problem. Here’s what I.W. Abel, then president of the AFL-CIO,  wrote 41 years ago to the U.S. Commerce Department:

“There is a too easy assumption in many quarters that the imposition of some restraints on imports is a retreat to the world of the early 1900’s. This is a misreading of reality. The plain hard fact is that world trade has, since the revival of Western Europe and Japan, moved away from the concept of so-called “free trade” (whatever that term means).

“The current world of international trade includes country after country with every conceivable hedge set up to give preference to their own products and to prejudice foreign imports. It just doesn’t make common sense for us to countenance these arrangements while we do little or nothing to protect the viability of our own economy.” (more…)

Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. It is evident in people who criticize others for behaving in the same
way that they (the critics) are behaving, as when Newt Gingrich and other Republicans criticized Bill Clinton for betraying his marriage vows while they were betraying theirs.

Newt Gingrich is the model of a perfect neocon. When Bill Clinton was president, Gingrich railed against the Clinton administration for being immoral,while Gingrich was doing the very same things that Clinton did. And note, while the Clintons are still married, Gingrich got divorced and married his paramour! And more recently, Newt railed against Juan Williams for bringing up his infidelity (i.e., for acting precisely as Gingrich himself acted in the past). Gingrich is guilty of hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness. If Gingrich were to be elected, he would turn our government into a hypocrisy (see the link at the bottom for definitions of hypocrisy).

Moreover, conservatives preach that we should stick to old established ways of doing things and avoid change. But is that the American way? Would we have moved from vacuum tube computers, radios and televisions
by sticking to the same old methods? America became strong and prosperous because it welcomed immigrants with new ideas. And it was liberals, not conservatives, who founded our country.

For more on hypocrisy, read this.

Let’s put the genie back in the bottle.

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1.   Search for a US located, privately held profitable corporation with net worth of $X million, and use leveraged buyout (LBO) financing to take over and gain controlling interest of that business. Use as little of your own money as possible to purchase that required controlling interest.

2.    Replace the existing officers and directors with your family members, friends and loyal associates.

3.    Buy as much of the shares held by other investors as possible.

4.    Take that corporation public and have the shares traded on the NYSE or NASDAQ.

5.    Take every action possible to inflate the stock prices so that you will create a record of ascending stock prices and ever increasing dividends.

6.    There is absolutely no reason for any of the executives running this business (or any other business) to know anything about making the product that the business is in business to produce, but you must learn how to use creative accounting to increase the paper assets and therefore inflate “net worth” on the 10K form statements for your business that you are required by law to file with the SEC.

7.    Have the board of directors direct the corporation officers to mortgage and re-finance all of the business’ real estate and other assets as much as possible to raise as much cash as possible (maybe $.5X million) and start passing out that cash as increasing quarterly dividends to stock holders.

8.    Disburse that cash in ever-increasing quarterly dividends as in order to drive the non-traded stock value to higher trading company stock prices as high as possible as reflected by the P/E ratios, which is one of the main factors that investors consider. (more…)