The Washington Post and MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart made a very moving personal statement in today’s edition of Up With Steve Kornacki, in the wake of yet another case of curious police-involved shooting of a young black male in Ferguson, Missouri. Continue reading Jonathan Capehart’s Moving Statement on MSNBC’s “Up with Steve Kornacki”
All posts by Rima Regas
The Federal Reserve Is Telling Us The Economy Is Pitiful
Shahien Nasiripourand
08/07/2014
Fewer than one-third of Americans report being better off financially than they were five years ago, with weak household savings and hefty debt burdens holding back large segments of the economy, according to a new Federal Reserve survey. Continue reading The Federal Reserve Is Telling Us The Economy Is Pitiful
Still No Wage Pressures to Speak Of…And Yet, People Speak of Them… | Jared Bernstein | On the Economy
August 9th, 2014
I don’t plan to publish this wage mash-up every quarter, but given the building and misguided pressure on the Fed to start raising rates to prevent allegedly incipient wage and price inflation, I thought I’d update the previous quarter’s result through the first half of this year.
Another Conservative Group Gets Entangled in an Indian Casino Money-Laundering Scandal | BillMoyers.com
Curated from BillMoyers.com
By Joshua Holland
August 8, 2014
Politico came up with a big scoop this week when it uncovered internal documents from the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) showing that the Alabama Republican Party had “essentially launder[ed] ‘toxic’ money from the gaming industry by routing it out of state and then back into Alabama” via the prominent conservative group.
Rahm Emanuel Cuts Schools, Pensions While Preserving Fund For Corporate Subsidies
Months after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said budget constraints forced him to push for pension cuts and mass school closures, an analysis of government documents reveals the city has $1.71 billion in special accounts often used to finance corporate subsidies. While the Emanuel administration has rejected open records requests for details of the subsidies, evidence suggests at least some of them have flowed to companies connected to Emanuel’s campaign donors.
The analysis conducted by the TIF Illumination Project evaluated the city’s 151 tax increment financing, or TIF, districts, which divert a share of property taxes out of accounts obligated to schools and into special accounts under the mayor’s control.
Continue reading Rahm Emanuel Cuts Schools, Pensions While Preserving Fund For Corporate Subsidies
Faces of Neoliberalism: The War on Teachers | PartII
WASHINGTON — Every day throughout the summer of 2006, seemingly without end, things just kept getting worse for Washington Republicans. Iraq was spiraling out of control, President George W. Bush was at the depth of his unpopularity. Congressional Republicans were mired in scandal. One was even caught sending dirty instant messages to young boys.
What followed was the Democratic wave of 2006, which handed Congress to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, followed by a second wave ridden by Barack Obama into the White House. Pundits talked about the end of the Republican Party, or at best, a permanent rump status.
Continue reading Faces of Neoliberalism: The War on Teachers | PartII
America’s 10 Most Hated #Banks | Mother Jones
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, these financial institutions draw the most complaints.
| Tue Jul. 29, 2014
If you put out a complaint box for customers of US banks and financial firms, you will get hundreds of thousands of complaints. That’s what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—which was set up by Elizabeth Warren before she became a US senator—has discovered. And the bank that has drawn the most complaints is Bank of America. Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and Citibank were other top targets of consumer wrath.
Continue reading America’s 10 Most Hated #Banks | Mother Jones
Cookbook Shows How To Eat Well On A #FoodStamp Budget | NPR
By Molly Roberts
When Leanne Brown moved to New York from Canada to earn a master’s in food studies at New York University, she couldn’t help noticing that Americans on a tight budget were eating a lot of processed foods heavy in carbs.
“It really bothered me,” she says. “The 47 million people on food stamps — and that’s a big chunk of the population — don’t have the same choices everyone else does.” Continue reading Cookbook Shows How To Eat Well On A #FoodStamp Budget | NPR
TavisSmiley interviews Carl and Rob Reiner | PBS
This joint interview with Carl and Rob Reiner is a first. The love and respect between father and son are just beautiful. Both Reiners are accomplished men in their own rights as actors and directors, and fine examples of engaged citizens. Enjoy the show! Continue reading TavisSmiley interviews Carl and Rob Reiner | PBS
David Cay Johnston: Truths and myths about the rise of part-time #jobs | Al Jazeera America
Aggregate demand is the problem, not ‘Obamacare’
When the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that 288,000 jobs had been added in June, critics cried foul. They said the news was misleading: The details showed a deteriorating job market, which many critics blamed on the Affordable Care Act requirement that employers provide workers with health insurance or risk prosecution or penalties.
But an examination of the data tells an entirely different story about what has hobbled the recovery from the Great Recession, which started in December 2007 and ended in the summer of 2009.