cengel Posts

By Dave Johnson
Fellow, Campaign for America's Future
A new bill was introduced in the House last week to fight currency manipulation, including China’s. The bipartisan Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act was introduced by Representatives Sander Levin (D-MI), Tim Murphy (R-PA), Tim Ryan (D-OH), and Mo Brooks (R-AL). This bill would treat undervalued cur

By Richard (RJ) Eskow
Senior Fellow, Campaign for America’s Future
$16 billion.
That’s how much JPMorgan Chase has paid in fines, settlements and other litigation expenses in the last four years alone.
More than half of that amount, $8.5 billion, was paid out in fines and settlements as the result of illegal actions taken by bank executives.
$8.5

By Dave Johnson
Fellow, Campaign for America's Future
First it was Fix the Debt, with tax-dodging corporations “leading the charge for massive new corporate tax cuts paid for with cuts to Social Security, M

By Richard (RJ) Eskow
Senior Fellow, Campaign for America’s Future
Can 147 people perpetuate economic injustice – and make it even worse? Can they subvert the workings of democracy, both abroad and here in the United States? Can 147 people hijack the global economy, plunder the environment, build a world for themselves that serves the few and deprives the many?

By Robert Reich
Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley
“Our biggest problems over the next ten years are not deficits,” the president told House Republicans Wednesday, according to those who attended th

Conservatives’ favorite battle cry, personal responsibility, is a glittering generality. A highly effective technique of propagandists and per Wikipedia, the emotionally appealing words are so closely associated with highly-valued concepts and beliefs that they carry conviction without supporting information or reason.
The latest indication of the CPAC darlings’ unwillingness to take any responsibility for the many “Tea Party one-term wonders” losing their seats in 2012 was apparent in

Kenneth Quinnell
AFL-CIO
Like many people who come from other countries to work in the United States, Juan José Rosales left his homeland in Mexico to make a better life for himself, tradin

By Ianthe Metzger
Fellow, AFL-CIO
As Women’s History Month continues, it’s important to highlight the often unsung heroes doing great work that continues to push the union movement forward, like domestic workers and groups advocating on their behalf. For many of us, domestic workers are the backbone of our household, providing general family care, housekeeping

Now that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has left office, she can speak publicly about marriage equality. Here, she shares what she learned while representing the United States around the world, and what she has come to believe.

By Jared Bernstein
Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
On the Bill Maher show the other night, I pointed out that contrary to the talking point that government spending is spiraling out of control, it in fact went up only 0.6 percent, 2009-2012. Whenever I say that, I get emails from people who don’t believe

Elected officials, workers and Hawaii residents must all work together to prevent Tesoro from closing its Kapolei, Hawaii refinery.
Shuttering this highly-profitable facility would threaten national security, force the people of Hawaii to pay higher prices for gasoline, cause fuel shortages and end the jobs of 210 well-paid workers.
Refinery owner Tesoro said in January it would stop refining at the facility and convert it into an import, storage and distribution terminal.
Before the refinery was constructed in 1972, Hawaii imported gasoline and other oil products at hi

Edwin D. Hill
International President, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Speaker of the House John Boehner and his party’s followers claim that if the Senate and the nation-at-large supported their policies, businesses would flourish and unemployed Americans would be headed back to work.
But over the past few weeks, those same policies have been s

Former Alaska Goverornor and political comedy favorite Sarah Palin made a point of bringing a Big Gulp to the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, and boy are we glad that she did.

By Robert Creamer
Political organizer, strategist and author
There is a real, looming danger for the Republican Party — and it goes well beyond the Party’s failure to use the latest digital or analytic tools.
The dilemma facing the Republican Party today can be traced to the massive social changes that erupted in the 1960&prim

Mike Lux
Co-founder and CEO, Progressive Strategies
Thank you, Attorney General Holder, for finally being so blunt and definitive about DOJ’s unwillingness to prosecute the biggest banks:
But I am concerned t

President Obama’s recent calls to raise the federally mandated minimum wage in the United States – from $7.25 to $9.00 an hour – has galvanized activists on labor issues, including those who note the wage boost would especially benefit women.

By Mart Bottati
Deputy Director, Center for Media and Democracy
Fix the Debt is the most hypocritical corporate PR campaign in decades, an ambitious attempt to convince the country that another cataclysmic economic crisis is around the corner and that urgent action is needed. Its strategy is pure Astroturf: assemble power players in business and government un

By Mike Hall
AFL-CIO Senior Writer
The former president of a Massey Energy subsidiary, who also served for 20 years in top positions throughout Massey, implicated former Massey CEO Donald Blankenship in a long-term scheme to hide mine safety violations from federal inspectors.
David Hughart, former president of White Buck Coal Co., pleaded guilty in feder