cengel Posts

By Roger Bybee
Milwaukee Based Freelance WriterOver the last few years, the media has blared warnings that a “skills gap” among American workers is preventing full economic recovery.

American wealth distribution in the past 30 years: Imagine picking up a rubber band and stretching it. Now put that rubber band down immediately, because someone in the top 1% just bought that rubber band and every other rubber band on the planet. Also, he’s suing you for touching his rubber band.

Sherry Linkon
Co-Director, Center for Working-Class Studies, Youngstown State University
I watched The Makers: Women Who Make America on PBS last week with a conflicted eye.  No doubt, the documentary about the last 60 years of activism and social change on behalf of women reminded me of just how much my own life was shaped by the feminist mo

Robert Borosage
Co-Director Campaign for America's Future
For years, the Obama administration has been pummeled for failing to bring criminal charges against a single major Wall Street bank or a single leading Wall Street banker for what the FBI termed an

Jackie Tortora
AFL-CIO Blog/Social Media ManagerMcDonald’s workers in central Pennsylvania launched a strike at 11:00 this morning, reports Josh Eidelson of the Nation. The guest workers, who began the surprise strike, allege the franch

By Jim Hightower
Author, Commentator, America’s Number One Populist
Sometimes, the cost of winning is so great that you really lose.
This little lesson seems to be dawning on several food industry powers. Such huge processors and retailers as ConAgra, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Wal-Mart dumped millions of dollars into last November&r

Kenneth Quinnell
AFL-CIO
Monday marked the 100th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Department of Labor, which began when President William Howard Taft signed the legislation authorizing the department on his last day in office. The Labor Department launched a

By Jared Bernstein
Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Payrolls expanded by 236,000 last month and the jobless rate ticked down to 7.7 percent, its lowest rate since late 2008, outperforming analysts expectations. Hours worked per week increased and hourly pay rose as well, suggesting a potential improvement in emp

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Terrance Heath
Online Producer, Campaign for America’s Future
Gimme an “S”! Gimme an “E”! Gimme a “Q”! Gimme a “U”!  Gimme an “E,S, T, E, R”! What’s that spell? That depends. If you’re almost everyone else, the sequester spells an onslaught of unnecessar

Robert Borosage
Co-Director Campaign for America's Future
On Tuesday, Senator Tom Harkin and Representative George Miller offer a ray of light amid the austerity blight in Washington.  They are announcing introduction of a bill – the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 – to raise the minimum wage gradually to $10.10 and index it so it adjusts annually

By Dave Johnson
Fellow, Campaign for America's Future
Tuesday morning House Democrats introduced ‘Buy America’ legislation to make sure taxpayer money that is used for transportation purposes gets used to support U.S. manufacturing and create American jobs. The ‘Invest in American Jobs Act of 2013′ will strengthen Buy America preferen

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Rachel Maddow discusses on how the sequester was designed to be “dumb and arbitrary” and painful to both parties in order to motivate the parties to work together. Republicans are trying to undo the cuts they don’t like while leaving the cuts Democrats hate, she argues.

Last March, 18 bakers at a Panera Bread franchise in southwest Michigan voted to join a labor union.  Now, nearly a year later, they are still waiting for their employer, Bread of Life, to recognize their bargaining unit.

By Dave Johnson
Fellow, Campaign for America's Future
You may have seen the charts showing how working people’s wages stopped going up along with productivity gains:

Watching the various Republican responses — official and otherwise — to President Obama’s State of the Union address was a bit like watching a right-wing remake of The Three Faces of Eve, the 1957 classic about a woman who suffered from "multiple personality disorder," for which Joanne Woodward won an Academy Award. In fact, Woodward was the first actress to take home the Best Actress Oscar for portraying three different personalities.

In an attempt to win big political prizes in 2014, 2016 and beyond, the GOP is portraying itself as three different parties. But behind what looks like an identity crisis is the same old party.

By my count, there were at least three Republican responses — two official, one unofficial — to the State of the Union address, representing three different faces of the same old GOP: the “Re-Branded” Republican party, the tea party, and the “alienated white men.”

Terrance Heath
Online Producer, Campaign for America’s Future
Watching the various Republican responses — official and otherwise — to President Obama’s State of the Union address was a bit like watching a right-wing remake of The Three Faces of Ev