After the U.S. House of Representatives voted last Friday to kill "fast-track" to give Obama authorization to pass a major and secretive trade agreement, presidential contender Hillary Clinton may yet have another opportunity to give the American people her open and honest opinion on the TPP trade agreement.
The Transatlantic and Transpacific Trade and Investment Partnerships have nothing to do with free trade. “Free trade” is used as a disguise to hide the power these agreements give to corporations to use law suits to overturn sovereign laws of nations that regulate pollution, food safety, GMOs, and minimum wages.
Elizabeth Warren and Rosa DeLauro recently co-authored an article posted at the Boston Globe (titled Who is writing the TPP?) which says, "Hillary Clinton has said that the United States should be advocating a level and fair playing field, not special favors for big business, in our trade deals. We agree with this blunt assessment."
According to Jay Bookman at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bill believes that the rich and and powerful aren't rich and powerful enough. But before we examine Bill O'Reilly bearing false witness again, let's take a quick assessment of cable TV news in general, and then see where Bill fits in to the scheme of things (pun intended) — or you can just skip to Jay's rebuttal.
Americans Don't Want It. Analysis Shows It Hurts People. Yet Congress and This President Could Care Less. What's fascinating is how we've seen this dance before and no matter how many put up a fight, more disastrous trade treaties get passed and enacted into law anyway.
One hundred million dollars in $100 bills fits nicely on a standard-sized pallet. The image below shows what $1 trillion in cash would look like. This is almost what U.S. corporations have spent on stock buybacks — just in the last year.
Increased productivity no longer has an affect on raising wages, because all the gains go to the top — and the decline of labor unions plays a big part; as well as a tax code that Congress has skewed to mostly favor the very wealthy and large corporations.
Jared Bernstein, former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, recently writes:
When Hillary Clinton recently borrowed Elizabeth Warren's talking points and claimed "the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top" against regular working people, did she mention reforming the tax code — and then offer any solutions? The simple answer is "no"; and unless she is ever pressed by the mainstream "liberal" media, she will probably dodge this question the same way GE dodges taxes.
According to a new report from the Department of Labor (Trends in Long-term Unemployment), people unemployed in 2014 couldn't count on a college degree to save them from long-term joblessness. The data also show it doesn't matter what industry you work in — and confirmed previous studies, that the longer you're out of work, the less likely you are to get another job.
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