During the winter of 1978-1979, the suspension of the right to collective bargaining by British labor unions lead to what was called the Winter of Discontent. Gas deliveries ground to a halt leading to shortages, blackouts became common, and in London trash sat uncollected for months. The labor activism of that period ended with the election of Margaret Thatcher, and the hollowing out of trade union power. God forbid that labor, the working class, have even a half of the power granted to capital, the men and women who live by the labor of others. Adam Smith was right:
Treasury Department officials are laying the groundwork for seeking the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package from Congress ... [but w]ith lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressing heated opposition to such a request, Treasury officials have come to realize that they need the president-elect's help to obtain the rescue money, the sources said.
The Treasury aired the possibility of seeking the second half of the funds with transition team officials, who said they would attend a meeting with lawmakers and the Bush administration if the department pulled one together.
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Amazing, simply amazing. For the past two days I've been watching these hearings on the automakers, and find myself more aghast than anything else. Actually, it's more than that. I think I've had this almost sickening feeling, a feeling where anger is meshed in with a humiliation and sadness. It isn't just the automakers that has been the cause of this, but that they symbolize how far we've fallen.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
This weeks film is Iraq For Sale The War Profiteers.
While privatization of the military, corruption and no-bid contracts has gone from the headlines, this post, Obama and Defense Spending got me wondering if any of it had been cleaned up? According to the CBO and the New York Times the price tag has hit $100 billion dollars and just recently the DoD said it's budget is not sustainable.
Amongst all the hysteria and real pain caused by the last forty years of 'conservative' misrule and such, the basic failure of established 'economic theory' now coming to a head with the 'meltdown' new voices are being hear. Voices that question the basic goals and models government uses as it tries to manage and promote economic activity.
One particularly interesting 'movement' created a story in my paper just recently :
This is what happens when you buy assets for reasons other than getting a return on value.
The government mounted a vigorous defense Friday of its massive bank bailout, responding to an Associated Press analysis showing that stock in the program intended to eventually earn taxpayers a profit has lost almost one-third of its value _ nearly $8 billion _ in barely one month.
Left Labor gets sold out by the Clintonite Democrats again.
President-elect Barack Obama's pick for commerce secretary, Bill Richardson, got a warm welcome Thursday during a visit to Mexico, where government officials said they doubted Obama would follow through on a campaign pledge to re-negotiate NAFTA.
Of course having Bernstein be Obama's economic adviser would assuredly be better but something is better than nothing!
I honestly don't know what kind of influence he can have being on the VP team but at least he's got his foot through the White House Door and we sorely need Economists who are focused on working America, the middle class.
Finally Bernstein is just plain smart as hell. I've never seen him write or speak economic fiction.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
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